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City prosecutors are reviewing the legality of restoring public access to first responder radio traffic after Mayor Rick Blangiardi expressed interest in a contractual agreement with Honolulu media allowing them to listen.
The public’s ability to monitor the radio communications of taxpayer-funded departments ended on February 15 when the final phase of a $15 million conversion of the city’s analog system to a Motorola P25 digital system was completed. The decision to upgrade radios and encrypt first responder radio traffic in real time was made during the administration of former Mayor Kirk Caldwell.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser shared a copy of a 2018 agreement between the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Las Vegas Media with Blangiardi, the Honolulu City Council, the Honolulu Fire Department, the Honolulu Police Department and the City Emergency Services Department.
The deal allowed news organizations to pay for their own Motorola P25 radios, which cost up to $10,000 each. Media organizations have agreed not to modify the equipment or use it other than to monitor channels approved and programmed by LVMPD.
The police are authorized to inspect the scanners to ensure compliance with the agreement.
After reviewing the Las Vegas deal, Blangiardi, who spent 43 years in the TV news industry, said he was “very interested” in executing a similar deal to restore TV access. public to police, fire and EMS radio communications.
“I understand the need to have access, we are looking at that. I would like to get to a place where we don’t shut down the news media,” he told the Star-Advertiser. “I take this very seriously. I have always been a strong advocate, on a personal level, of transparency in leadership.
Any deal would be pending approval from company attorney Dana Viola.
The issue of first responder radio upgrades and the loss of public access to live communications was on Wednesday’s Police Commission agenda.
Police Commissioner Ann Botticelli, a retired communications officer and former journalist, urged police officials to restore access to patrol radio traffic. After reviewing the email alerts HPD has sent to the media since the upgrade, she said it does not provide real-time notification and only documents a very small portion of the activity of the police.
“I know the scanner goes off more than that. I was a journalist. I heard it ringing all the time,” Botticelli said during the commission meeting. “There seems to be some selectivity here in what gets reported to the media.”
Botticelli said access to the P25 Patrol’s radio chatter “appears to be the best course of action”.
Deputy Police Chief Darren Chun, who oversees the HPD’s communications division, told commissioners the department would consider restoring public access to patrol radio communications, but past experience makes that difficult.
“The media reprogrammed these scanners to access our tactical channels and our unauthorized channels. …. Once you give those radios with the particular key, they can still be hacked,” Chun said. “Those are the issues we have with providing these kinds of resources to the media. We start to lose control when we implement these types of protocols. »
Acting Police Chief Rade Vanic did not respond to a Star-Advertiser request for the identity of media outlets that allegedly rescheduled channels. He also did not respond to questions about the Las Vegas deal.
Honolulu Fire Chief Sheldon Kalani Hao and Emergency Services Director Dr. James Ireland did not respond to Star-Advertiser’s requests for comment on the deal or if they thought the public access to their communications had to be granted.
Chun also said federal law and the need to keep personal information and other sensitive data confidential require HPD to keep channels encrypted.
When radio communications were public, listeners heard police, firefighters and EMS dispatchers in real time dispatching officers to the scene and what witnesses had reported.
Police now send a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet attached to an email, including the date, time, initial case classification and initial decision for certain incidents, such as homicides, robberies, critical and fatal traffic collisions, barricade situations and missing persons cases.
In contrast, HFD sends real-time emails and text messages with abbreviations letting the media know which units are being dispatched where and what type of emergency they are responding to. The fire department also issues several press releases via email almost daily detailing notable incidents.
EMS updates and emails media a running list of its calls in real time using Google Docs, and often follows up with more details.
City Council Speaker Tommy Waters and Council Members Augie Tulba and Carol Fukunaga said they support public access to P25 radio traffic. The other six council members did not respond to Star-Advertiser’s requests for comment.
“I support restoring public and media access to previously available first responder communications. The airwaves are public and first responders and the radio systems they use are publicly funded,” Fukunaga said. “With the exception of private medical information and sensitive tactical law enforcement operations, encrypted transmissions should be made available to taxpayers.”
Waters, who has drafted legislation to increase transparency and improve police communication, said he will introduce a resolution urging the administration to restore access. Accountability and transparency are “not just buzzwords for the Honolulu City Council,” he said.
“These values are at the root of the four amendments to the charter that I have presented and which are making their way through the Council process. In the meantime, I think the police department and all of our first aid agencies should work with our local media to restore access to radio transmissions,” Waters said. “Other jurisdictions have found ways to do that, and I think that should be a priority for our city.”
Besides HPD, HFD, and EMS, other city agencies using the new encrypted system include the Ocean Safety Division, Department of Information Technology, Honolulu Rapid Transit Authority, Department of facilities maintenance, the Department of Environmental Services and the Department of Parks and Recreation. .
