MILLERSVILLE, Md. — Anne Arundel County police will start encrypting their radio transmissions, starting Oct. 1, and Harford County Sheriff's Office just began encrypting theirs as well.
Anne Arundel County Police announced that they will join many other law enforcement agencies nationwide in encrypting its radio network traffic, in order to protect privacy.
This means that personal information like names, social security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, medical or mental health information - including the specific reasons for responding to a home or other location, and past history of a location or a person - won't be transmitted over the police scanner.
Harford County Sheriff's Office announced on social media:
Baltimore Police Department also started a 15-minute delay of its radio broadcasts last year.
Anne Arundel police said the move is part of a system-wide upgrade and will help protect privacy and security of the communications system.
The department added:
...encryption will also allow officers to effectively and safely respond to calls for service and communicate operational tactics without fear of suspects intercepting sensitive information, without negatively impacting de-escalation efforts and without negatively impacting the safety of officers and the community at large.
Police said the encryption will not affect public notifications or "access to information that impacts the community," noting that they distribute information over social media, "Alert Anne Arundel," daily media releases, on-call public information officers, and other connections to the media and general public.
They said: "The Anne Arundel County Police Department remains committed to both providing information to the community and safeguarding private information that could compromise community members."
