A new bill from state Rep. La Shawn Ford would give back police-scanner access to the news media across Illinois.
His House bill amends the Public Records Act, a law that regulates how the public accesses government information, to require any law enforcement agency that encrypts scanners to give real-time access to FCC-licensed broadcasters and accredited newspapers. That could be by license, digital key or other means.
“Police don’t have the ability to get the word out on their own,” Ford, a Democrat from the 8th District, said. “They need the press, and the press needs real-time information to do that.”
Media members could long listen to the scanners as activity happened. And for some groups, such as violence-prevention organizations or hospitals, scanners are critical tools. Violence interrupters use them to try to arrive on a scene to diffuse a violent situation, which can save lives. Trauma-level hospitals also use them to supplement information from paramedics to prepare for emergency arrivals.
In 2022, under former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the Emergency Management and Communications department encrypted police and fire scanners across the city after they switched from an analog to digital format. The transmissions are archived on Broadcastify, a live, public online platform. That creates a 30-minute delay to access the information.
“Even though in the George Floyd case, it wasn’t reporters filming, can you imagine what would have happened 30 minutes after citizens were listening? You wouldn’t see the bad s— going on,” said Steven Mandell, an attorney with Chicago-based Mandell Menkes.
“Or what if there is a case that involves a shooting on the expressway, they drive off a ramp and into a neighborhood. If a scanner signal is not available, the media wouldn’t be able to report to the neighborhood to tell everyone what’s going on.”
A similar incident happened in November 2022, according to anecdotes Mandell has collected. A Chicago TV news station reported that police were investigating a shooting
near 111th Street and Ellis Avenue in the Pullman neighborhood when the gunman sprayed fire across from the nearby Cook County Circuit Court, Branch 38 and 35. Witnesses reported more than 40 shots were fired. The getaway car escaped on the Bishop Ford Freeway just blocks away.
Because the police scanner information was on the 30-minute delay, Mandell said, “the news media had no way of alerting the immediate danger to the hundreds of people inside the area or the thousands in the expressway.”
During those 30 minutes, Mandell added, police can also edit the transmission, like an email forwarded to him recently that showed the Chicago Lawn district disabled the archive feed so no one could access it. So, in some cases, events may not make it to the public at all.
At the time, Lightfoot and defenders of the move said that the lack of encryption could allow criminals to access communications, putting officers in danger.
“It’s about officer safety,” ABC7 reported Lightfoot saying. “If it’s unencrypted and there’s access, there’s no way to control criminals who are also gonna get access, listen in and adjust their criminal behavior in response to the information that’s being communicated.”
But Ford disagreed.
“Media’s been doing it that way since the beginning of time in radio and now all of a sudden it’s a safety issue?” Ford said. “There are bad actors and we should root them out, but never in our history has it put police in danger.”
“You know,” he added, “when I think about the fact that the police support ShotSpotter because it’s real time for them and they want to know real time so they can help fight crime – this is an opportunity for the press to know in real time crime is happening to get the word out for safety for both the community and police. It just makes sense.”
ShotSpotter was Chicago’s beleaguered surveillance system for real-time gun activity that has been heavily criticized for being ineffective, inaccurate and biased. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson campaigned on promises to end that relationship and to restore public access to scanners. Last week, he announced he was extending the ShotSpotter contract through September with a phase-out period. His office did not respond to a request for comment about encrypted police scanners.
The problems don’t have to be as traumatic as a shooting, said Don Craven, president of the Illinois Press Association. Blocked access impeded the ability to get any fire- or police-related activity to the public.
“For instance,” he said, “if there is an accident on a street and traffic is blocked, the longer it takes to get the information out, the bigger backlog of traffic there will be.”
Ford’s legislation would apply across the state, not just Chicago. Several suburban and downstate police departments also encrypt their transmissions.
Nearby Oak Park’s scanners are not encrypted. Neither are Forest Park’s. Chief Ken Gross said the village is part of the West Suburban Consolidated Dispatch Center, a 911 hub responsible for more than one municipality.
“Our radio dispatches are currently analog and are not encrypted,” he said. “If they were encrypted, they would still be available to the public and the media via the Freedom of Information Act, but the encrypted transmission could not be listened to via a scanner or scanner application in real time.”
Proponents say that open-access scanners do cause more problems than one might guess, and increasing numbers of cities are locking down their transmissions: New York City; Denver, Colorado; Las Vegas, Nevada and Baltimore, Maryland all encrypt police and fire scanners. Minneapolis, Minnesota will begin next year. In an interview with The New York Times, police Chief Brian O’Hara pointed to two incidents that he said argued for encryption: a murder-suspect search was tracked and relayed on social media in real time, and a false report of an abducted college student went viral, stirring panic among students.
But those incidents do not involve the press. Ford said the Illinois model is similar to one the city of Las Vegas began in 2018, when it gave media access to its encrypted channels. The city of Decatur, too, gives the news media access to its encrypted channels, Mandell said.
“It’s working,” Ford added.
