Police scanners in Minneapolis fall silent as MPD encrypts radio traffic

The Minneapolis Police Department has started encrypting its two-way radio communications. That means you’ll no longer be able to use a scanner or smartphone app to listen in on police.

The department says encryption is needed to protect the safety of officers and the privacy of crime victims. In response to transparency concerns, MPD is putting some information about police calls on an online dashboard.

If you turn on a police scanner or open a scanner app or website such as Broadcastify, you can hear what police are doing minute to minute directly from them. Over the course of 40 minutes Monday afternoon, Minneapolis police dispatchers aired information about incidents from the routine to the very serious — including the exact addresses — all audible to the public.

Two of the calls were for residential burglar alarms on the city’s north side. A behavioral crisis response team was sent to the Franklin Library in south Minneapolis to check on a person, and minutes later police were dispatched to help paramedics respond to a student’s reported suicide attempt at a school.

But information about such incidents will no longer be available via police scanners. MPD’s radio channels are going silent, initially for four to six hours a day, while the department tests its encrypted radios. 

Encrypted police communications are not new in Minnesota. The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office started blocking access to its radio channels in 2019. Other agencies followed suit including the Rochester and St. Louis Park police departments and Twin Cities airport police. 

MPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Garrett Parten said in an interview with MPR News on Monday that radio encryption helps officers to maintain the element of surprise if they’re trying to arrest a barricaded suspect or help a person in crisis. He added that by law, information typically aired over the radio must later be redacted in written incident reports made accessible to the public.

“There’s no safeguard when it comes to radio communications, which is why encryption is so important,” Parten said. “But we recognize, especially as a government agency, the importance of a public knowing what its government is doing.” 

Parten said that’s why the city has launched an online dashboard that lists recent 911 calls, including the block where the incident took place, a general description of the problem, and which squad car responded. Calls older than 12 hours are listed on a separate archival dashboard.  

Unlike the police scanner, the information on the new website is not instantaneous. Minneapolis 911 Director Jodi Hodne said updates are delayed by a half hour to ensure accuracy. 

“[Officers] may get out there in five minutes, 10 minutes, but it may take a little bit for them to sort out all of the pieces and be able to figure out what’s going on,” Hodne said. “By having the 30-minute window, we can make sure that the information on the dashboard is updated to accurately reflect what’s really happening down the block.”

Police also argue that social media makes it much easier for rumors that start with scanner information to accelerate out of control.

But in a letter to city officials last summer, a group of news organizations urged MPD not to encrypt its radio traffic. They argued that scanner audio was critical to verifying the after-the-fact official accounts of critical incidents including the May 2024 killing of Officer Jamal Mitchell and the fatal police shooting of Michael Ristow soon after. 

University of Minnesota law and journalism professor Jane Kirtley said even if those official police statements are accurate, it’s still important for the public and news media to have multiple perspectives about incidents. Kirtley said MPD’s move toward encryption is a move away from transparency. 

“There is a tendency to believe that if they can control the narrative for an extended period of time, then the public will then get a version of events that they’re happier with,” Kirtley said 

The city’s new online dashboard doesn’t show all dispatch information. Hodne, the 911 director said that calls about sex crimes are excluded to protect victims. And while domestic assault calls are included, the location information is restricted.

The department began testing its encrypted radios on a limited basis Monday evening. By May 1, the encryption will be active full time, meaning listeners will hear only silence when they turn on the police scanner.

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