While some officials in cities and villages provide official fire communication feeds online in real time for the safety and awareness of their citizens, and out of respect for the citizens they serve, CARDINAL NEWS has learned that at least two police chiefs and possibly one or two fire chiefs are proponents of public silencing of the fire radio communications in the Northwest Central Dispatch System 9-1-1 center that includes Arlington Heights and nearby municipalities and fire protection districts. The public silencing of fire radio communications, which would cause operational issues with mutual aid fire departments, would be established by encrypting radio fire talk groups in the manner they encrypted police radio talk groups in June 2013. An Elk Grove chief is concerned that people listening to fire radio communications are tracking police activity — apparently unaware of the significant amount of people that are tracking police activity in many other ways without the use of radio scanners or online scanner streams or apps.
Even the Chicago Police Department provides their police radio communications online, but delayed by 30 minutes.
Arlington Heights Police Chief Nicholas Pecora and Arlington Heights Fire Chief Lance Harris this week both failed to answer simple emails sent to them Wednesday, November 6, 2024 asking whether they were proponents of Fire Radio Talk Group encryption. Both chiefs also failed to respond to a question asking whether fire communications in the clear for public listening have ever jeopardized an investigation or caused a public safety issue in Arlington Heights. They also failed to answer whether they have a plan that would provide substitute notifications for the public so that citizens in their jurisdiction would be kept informed of public safety emergencies and incidents in real time or within a reasonable time, such the City of Chicago’s broadcast of radio communications on a 30-minute delay via Broadcastify.com
Some Northwest Central Dispatch System (NWCDS) authorities made up of NWCDS personnel, area police chiefs and fire chiefs, and area village managers appear to be hiding their intentions to encrypt fire department radio communications — perhaps attempting to implement it before public resistance develops. While the topic of encryption was mentioned in meeting agendas this year, there are no details about encryption in NWCDS meeting minutes. In a discussion with NWCDS Executive Director John Ferraro in May 2024, CARDINAL NEWS was told that encryption of Fire Radio Talk Groups was unlikely. However, a DuPage County Emergency Telephone System Board (ETSB) meeting packet reveals what is really happening — a significant possibility of a move to encryption on the fire communications side of public safety radios at NWCDS. The issue is strong enough that it has the DuPage County ETSB concerned with being prepared to interface with Northwest Central Dispatch System if and when NWCDS encrypts Fire Radio Talk Groups. The ETSB is also concerned with issues that may develop with the use of radio encryption.
DUPAGE COUNTY REVEAL …
DuPage County ETSB Transcript
Ms. Zerwin asked if there could be discussion on outside agency access to encryption and Northwest Central Dispatch (NWCD) agencies moving to encryption on the fire side.
Vice Chair Johl began the discussion saying a communication had been received from the Chief of Elk Grove Village because of police officer safety concerns as people are listening to the fire channels and tracking the movement of police on fire calls. He said NWCD would like to move in that direction but had not yet taken those steps, but that encryption would need to be shared both ways between the bordering agencies and NWCD. Ms. Zerwin said DuPage has the capabilities to move to encryption with NWCD, but that other outside agencies with access for mutual aid on any of the borders of DuPage are not yet equipped to move to encryption on the fire side along with DuPage and that difficulties will be encountered. Mr. Connolly said that there were two new joint secure ops channels created for fire so that there was a secure place for fire and police to work together to minimize this issue. He continued saying that half the Interops and Unifieds were proposed to be encrypted so users could be moved to the encrypted channels and when outside agencies have that capability, they could join. Mr. Connolly said this is a partial solution and how well this works operationally will need to be determined. Vice Chair Johl said he suggested this plan to the fire chief at NWC Dispatch. He said they (NWCDS) will have the same issues as DuPage, border agencies without encryption they work with every day, how are they going to talk to them?
— DuPage ETSB – Policy Advisory Committee Summary – Agenda Packet Draft September 9, 2024 (SOURCE: Monthly Report for October 9 Regular Meeting/Agenda Packet [PDF])
First of all, does the “Elk Grove Chief” not realize that police activity (and fire activity) is tracked 24 hours daily by people on nearly every social media platform available, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, X.com, Snapchat, Signal, Telegram, Google Maps Waze, SMS/text groups, and more. A majority of these people are simply making observations without the use of fire radio scanners or public safety radio streaming pages or apps. They’re just moms, dads, neighbors, teens, etc. that are witnesses of police activity in their neighborhoods or on their commute, and are asking if anyone knows what is happening.
Most incidents are not revealed by municipalities.
Secondly, the DuPage County ETSB agenda packet information indicates operational issues between communities with encryption and communities without encryption. Encryption is a complication that introduces the chance of critical failures in fire radio communications when seconds matter.
Additionally, the implementation of fire radio encryption would drastically interfere with awareness of routine emergencies of daily life, and would frighteningly delay awareness during major emergencies.
With the encryption of the fire radio talk groups, the public would lack awareness of most if not all daily public safety incidents; and major incidents would likely be haphazardly disclosed by authorities with extreme brevity — lack of details. The disclosures could also depend on the availability of personnel to provide the public messaging. The messaging would always be uncomfortably delayed and could also cause lost lives and property losses. The inconveniences and uncertainty would be daily events, and the lack of informed citizens would be detrimental to a progressive, healthy society.
Lack of awareness of major incidents, such as a tornado outbreak, large severe thunderstorm outbreak, hazardous materials treat, active shooter, mass shooting, terrorist act, etc. would be very likely to cause additional angst, property loss, and even lost lives.
Real-time notifications for some of these incidents could be life-saving compared to the delayed efforts of decision-making by authorities to make the call for mass notification, and the process of reverse 9-1-1 or the use of social media (if it is even working properly).
Additionally, as mentioned in the DuPage County ETBS meeting minutes, there would be operational difficulties, especially with border communities that are outside the DuPage County area, and similar operational difficulties with border communities outside the NWCDS area.
The Encryption Problem: Butler, PA
Consider how law and order authorities messed up with communications on July 13, 2024 at their response to the Butler, Pennsylvania Trump assassination attempt, and the failure of communications among local law enforcement, regional law enforcement, and US Secret Service agents (mainly the US Secret Service agents). It was the public making observations that pointed out and emphasized the threat at the site.
The authorities have too many expensive toys with too many buttons and channels to the point that they are losing effectiveness.
A 94-page interim Senate report (Investigation of U.S. Secret Service Planning and Security Failures Related to the July 13, 2024 Assassination Attempt [PDF]) released Wednesday, September 25, 2024, cited nearly half a dozen problems, including a chain of command failure, poor coordination with state and local law enforcement, inadequate resources and equipment, radio failures related to encryption, and a failure to effectively secure the physical safety of the site and ensure the safety of then former President and currently President-Elect Donald J. Trump at Butler, Pennsylvania.
The Senate report indicates several Secret Service officials had lingering problems with their radios (some had encrypted radios and some didn’t). In one instance, a Secret Service countersniper was offered a local radio to help with communications through the day, but the countersniper didn’t have time to pick up the radio because he was working on “fixing” his own Secret Service radio. Also, due to failures of radios on site in Butler, the special agent in charge gave away his radio to a lead advance agent and went without one for the rest of the day, according to the Senate report. Also, brought up was the fact that an agent gave up his encrypted radio because a female agent needed an encrypted radio to manage another motorcade. The agent figured he could give up his radio because another person on his team had an encrypted radio. This problem was discovered minutes before the female agent’s motorcade was supposed to leave the airport.
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Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) Minority: So you didn’t have a working radio at all while you were on-site (Butler, PA)?
Witness (Special Agent in Charge, US Secret Servie Pittsburgh Field Office): “No, sir.”
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A text message sent by a Secret Service employee to a supervisor an hour before the shooting warned, “I’m not getting good comms on either my phone or radio. I’ll try to stay on[.]”
If the US Secret Service can’t manage encrypted radios at a single event on a few acres in Butler, PA and during motorcades, how are we expected to believe encrypted fire radio communications will be successfully managed every day for mutual aid fire department responses involving dozens of community fire departments and fire protection districts in northeast Illinois.
Several USSS officials reported experiencing technical problems with their radios at the (Butler) rally, and told the Committee such problems are common for USSS: A USSS Hercules 1 counter sniper was offered a local radio on July 13 but said he did not have time to pick it up because he was occupied fixing technical problems with his USSS radio. In addition, at the Pittsburgh airport before the motorcade left for the rally, the USSS Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) of the Pittsburgh field office gave the Lead Agent his radio because the Lead Agent’s radio was not working.
The fire department encryption would be a major over-reach of secrecy in government and paranoia by government. Possibly tech companies, such as Motorola, are feeding this paranoia as part of the Police-Industrial Complex. Yes, there is an extra expense for Motorola radios to be encrypted. More money for Motorola, and less money for us after taxes. Also, keep in mind that fire and ambulance vehicles are already equipped with on-board computers for communicating sensitive information — both dispatch and on-scene operations information. If that system of on-board computers is not working, they have cell-phone texting capability as a backup.
The lack of common sense in this idiotic idea to reduce the level of informed citizens, and even put citizens in greater danger and risk via the lack of awareness of hazardous, life-threatening and property loss situations, and common daily public safety emergencies is preposterous.
Notifying the Public
Note that the critical decision to use reverse 9-1-1 to notify citizens and to decide what citizens need to be notified is a time consuming process that does not match the effectiveness of real-time fire radio monitoring, and never matches the in-depth awareness available by monitoring published safety communications.
While public safety scanner pages on social media have their faults and inaccuracies, the demand for information by citizens is evident by their existence, and it is clear that municipalities, villages and cities are not meeting that demand … and it seems they are not interested in meeting that demand because they don’t respect us.
To the police chiefs, fire chiefs, village managers and mayors and village presidents: There are no valid reasons to shut down real time public information (that has been available for decades) that outweigh the reasons for maintaining public availability of fire talk group communications which …
provide understanding for citizens to avoid and adapt to risks, and begin recovery from public safety emergencies — a process made possible by monitoring firefighters’ communications of assessments at an emergency scene;
prevent citizens from being susceptible to wild assumptions and misinformation on non-dedicated scanner page social media (e.g., Neighbors app, NextDoor) rather than confirmed fact-checking available from Fire and EMS radio talk group communications; and
provide the public a general reality of the day-to-day situations that occur in the community and indicate an honest perception of safety and dynamic risks that exist in the community.
Questions for Authorities
To the paranoid, authoritarian and cruel proponents of silencing public fire department radio communications:
Is there a reason you would not want the public to know in real time that a mass shooting has occurred?
Is there a reason you would not want your community to know in real time when there is an active shooter incident?
Is there a reason you would not want the public to know in real time if a train accident or a truck accident occurred with a hazardous material exposure risk?
Is there a reason you would not want the public to know in real time where the damage path is and where the hazards are in the event a tornado struck your community? (Many people die, or are seriously injured in the aftermath tornado damage).
Is there a reason you would not want the public to know in real time in the case of widespread severe thunderstorms where the fire department is responding to numerous incidents of structural damage, road hazards, and hazardous downed power lines where structures are at risk of burning down, and where people could be at risk of accidentally touching live power lines or objects that the power lines may be touching?
Is there a reason you would not want people to know in real time that a person has been seriously injured in a vehicular hijacking with a description of the suspect(s), so your citizens could reasonably respond to the government homeland security slogan “if you see something say something?”
Is there a reason you would not want the people to know in real time when a murder or other violent crime has occurred, and whether the suspect is at large?
Is there a reason you would not want the public to know in real time when a child abduction has occurred and what direction the abductor and the child may have gone after the abduction occurred ?
Is there a reason you would not want the public to know in real time the source of the noise and vibrations of a terrifying explosion involving a natural gas house explosion or other type of explosion somewhere in town?
Is there a reason you would want to allow the effectiveness of jokesters, pranksters and misinformed anonymous “neighbors” in real time spreading misinformation on the neighbors app, because these bad actors are unhindered by the truth that is unfolding on fire radio communications (The Neighbors app, especially, and other social media platforms, frequently involve people joking about emergencies, making up false stories, or poking fun at other neighbors that have posted concerns)?
Is there a reason you would not want to let the public know in real time where the crashes are in town so that traffic decisions could be made to avoid those areas?
Is there a reason you would not want to let the public know in real time where accidents are frequently happening in your municipality (the government mandates auto insurance; it is our business to know where, and when crashes are occurring so that we can attempt to reduce our risks to our property and perhaps change public policy)?
Is there a reason you would want to let people live in fear because they hear multiple sirens, and have no idea what’s happening in their town?
Is there a reason you would not want to let citizens know in real time and relieve their concern as soon as possible when a situation is secure — learned via fire radio communications?
Is there a reason why you would want to create a situation where criminals know that the entire community is in the dark — unaware and not informed in real time — regarding crime and public safety emergencies in the municipality? (Criminals love uninformed and unaware citizens.)
Do your selfish reasons outweigh the common sense need to keep the public aware in real time?
What could these selfish reasons be?
Maybe you’re suckers for the Police-Industrial Complex? (and associated government waste)
Overbearing control of information and propaganda among the public, and even to control information flow to your own personnel within your organizations to manipulate them and get away with favoritism in the ranks?
Obsession with controlling the message with your “state media” and monopoly control over the news media?
The overly-authoritarian concern that the public doesn’t deserve to know and doesn’t deserve to gain a high resolution assessment of their community … that only the authorities know better? (which really amounts to a serious issue of disrespect toward citizens)
The obsession with hiding your mistakes and controlling your positive image? (if you’re encryption fails, without a Senate investigation, or a major law firm investigation, you would certainly lie about what happened)
An natural obsession to hide corruption or have the ability to hide corruption if it ever does exist?
Protect or help your cronies? Influential business people? (e.g., businesses that don’t want the public to know about crime near their business, is just one example)
Hide problems and incidents related to political agendas that might be exerted by special interest groups … conflicts of interest on Village Boards and City Councils?
Are you attempting to hide an epidemic of mental illness in the community? homelessness? drug overdoses? fentanyl?
Are you obsessed with hyped up concerns of citizen privacy and personnel safety; combined with lack of creative ideas, creative use of technology, and earnest work to provide real effective solutions regarding those concerns?
Are you attempting to create a false perception that your community is safer than any neighboring community?
The public and your own personnel would like to know; and the public would like to know the real reasons and exaggerations that you think justify your obsession with secrecy.
Authorities seem more concerned with protecting their own assets than using common sense to maintain an informed public, and truly protect the public.
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For more on Butler coverage, see these sources …
See also …
BBC | Scathing report details security failures before Trump rally shooting
Newsweek | Donald Trump Returns to Butler After Senate Blasts Secret Service Mistakes
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