The Executive Committee of Northwest Central Dispatch System (NWCDS) held at the Palatine Village Hall on November 21, 2024 announced to defer the decision on radio encryption of the fire dispatch talk groups into the year 2025.
At the September 12, 2024 meeting, discussions continued whether or not to encrypt the fire department radios. In September, NWCDS Executive Director John Ferraro asked the Committee to think about encrypting the radios, and said he would like to bring this to an official vote in the November 2024 meeting.
At the November 21, 2024 meeting of the executive committee, John Ferraro announced that the decision on encrypting fire dispatch talk groups would be deferred to a subcommittee until after distribution of new radios. The new radios were being tested in late 2024.
Wheeling Police Department and Wheeling Fire Department are joining NWCDS on January 9, 2025, and there had been a possibility that fire dispatch talk groups for all of the northwest suburbs in the NWCDS would have been encrypted on or around January 9, 2024 (if a decision to encrypt fire talk groups were to be decided).
Encryption of fire dispatch talk group would result in a significant black out of awareness of public safety emergencies and incidents involving fire, rescue and EMS in the northwest suburbs — including Arlington Heights, Barrington, Barrington Hills, Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, Inverness, Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Schaumburg, Streamwood, and Wheeling.
Awareness and early details of incidents such as shootings, mass shootings, fires, mass casualty incidents, terrorism, crashes, hazardous materials incidents, traffic disruptions, storm damage with associated hazards, and any and all other types of emergencies that require a fire department response would be seriously hampered. Any awareness would depend on posts from municipalities on X or Facebook. Historically these posts from municipalities are very limited in details, inconsistently implemented, and sometimes (believe it or not, INCORRECT).
At the November 2024 meeting, NWCDS Executive Directory John Ferraro mentioned that there was no need to impose an unnecessary burden (of encrypting the fire radios) at this time before the distribution of the new radios.
According to John Ferraro, the subcommittee would consist of fire and police personnel and NWDS 9-1-1 personnel. There was no mention of inviting citizens or members of the news media to sit in on the subcommittee.
Arlington Heights Police Chief Nicholas Pecora and Fire Chief Lance Harris never replied to a CARDINAL NEWS inquiry that asked if they were in favor of the public silencing of fire radio communications.
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