Millersville, MD (September 9, 2024): As part of a system-wide upgrade and a continued effort to protect the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of community members, the Anne Arundel County Police Department will be transitioning to encrypted radio transmissions for all law enforcement activity on Tuesday, October 1, 2024. Encryption is a standardized nationwide technology that protects the privacy and security of public safety digital radio network communications.
Public safety radio systems nationwide have been upgrading to the “P25 Standard”. This nationwide standard enhances the security and interoperability of two-way radio transmissions between public safety agencies. As part of a multi-year project, the Anne Arundel County radio system has been upgraded to the P25 standard, allowing for the encryption of radio transmissions without impacting interoperable communications with allied agencies.
Encryption of digital police radio network traffic will protect the dignity of victims, witnesses and their families by securing private information. In order to effectively do their jobs, police officers and dispatchers routinely need to transmit personally identifiable information such as names, social security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, medical or mental health information, the specific reasons for responding to a home or other location, and past history of a location or a person over the radio system. With encryption, the dignity of victims and their families will now be protected by securing this information.
This helps protect the community from the increasing prevalence of identity theft. According to the National Council on Identity Theft Protection, identity theft is increasing. Professionals in the field believe that there is a new victim of identity theft every 22 seconds. In addition to the protection of private information, 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.
Despite this transition to encrypted radios, it’s important to point out encryption will not impact public notifications or access to information that impacts the community. The Anne Arundel County Police Department prides itself on transparency and will continue to utilize a robust system for communicating validated, timely and accurate information to the public and to the media, especially during active and critical incidents. This includes the following:
- Social media platforms: Facebook, X (Formerly Twitter) and Instagram
- Emergency and public safety notifications via “Alert Anne Arundel”
- Distribution of daily media releases related to significant incidents and department information
- On-call public information officers (PIO’s) who have the capability to release information to the public and to provide access to the media at all hours every day of the week; and a 24-hour phone number is available to members of the media routed directly to the on-call PIO
- Direct text and email notifications to news desks
- Online Public Information Act requests for records such as radio transmissions for the community
This encryption technology was not previously available, but now affords our agency the opportunity to protect the private information of our community members. The Anne Arundel County Police Department remains committed to both providing information to the community and safeguarding private information that could compromise community members.