Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests
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Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests
#2Hi there! I'm the owner and operator of Broadcastify, which is the platform that powers all the apps that provide police scanners and public safety communications online. I'm an active HN reader and would be glad to answer any questions folks have.
It's an interesting business to be in these days...
Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests
#3Most of our local departments use encrypted radios.
"Over the past few years, an increasing number of municipalities and police departments, including the District’s, have begun encrypting their radioed communications.."[1.]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/last-of-t...
Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests
#4How come LE in 2020 is not using encrypted communication systems such as Tetrapol? Yes I know Tetrapol is European, but you get the idea.
Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests
#5Most of our local departments use encrypted radios. "Over the past few years, an increasing number of municipalities and police departments, including the District’s, have begun encrypting their radioed communications.."[1.] https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/last-of-t...
I don't think this is a positive development. It's already too easy to blackhole information that could be used to hold police accountable (body cams, arrest reports, etc.). This removes yet another avenue for citizens/journalists.
Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests
#6Hi there! I'm the owner and operator of Broadcastify, which is the platform that powers all the apps that provide police scanners and public safety communications online. I'm an active HN reader and would be glad to answer any questions folks have. It's an interesting business to be in these days...
Is there a way of legitimately detecting Stingrays? I understand this is the kind of situation where they are actively deployed despite all the social awareness.
Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests
#7I'm surprised they didn't mention that someone in Chicago seems to have stolen a police radio and has been trolling them for days.
Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests
#8Anecdotal, but an ex-friend cop told me YEARS ago that they never use their radios for "sensitive" communications anyway, they just call each other on their cell phones so that there are no records of their conversations.
Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests
#9Most of our local departments use encrypted radios. "Over the past few years, an increasing number of municipalities and police departments, including the District’s, have begun encrypting their radioed communications.."[1.] https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/last-of-t...
Completely outside of my area of expertise, so this may be a silly question, but are police transmissions distinguishable from others in their encrypted form? If so, there could still be a use case for knowing _where_ the cops are. Wonder if some sort of mesh could be used to triangulate the positions of these signals.
Re: Thousands are monitoring police scanners during the George Floyd protests
#10Hi there! I'm the owner and operator of Broadcastify, which is the platform that powers all the apps that provide police scanners and public safety communications online. I'm an active HN reader and would be glad to answer any questions folks have. It's an interesting business to be in these days...
Is there a way of legitimately detecting Stingrays? I understand this is the kind of situation where they are actively deployed despite all the social awareness.
You can look up where the towers are and perform triangulation on the ones that you are connected to given multiple antennae. It'll cost you some hardware and you'll probably be writing some software also.
Another option can be just seeding a few phones around the area and have them report moving (or transient) towers.