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Block watch leaders weigh in on new city radios
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The majority of city block- watch leaders who could be reached this week said they had no opinion on the police and fire department’s plan to encrypt their radio traffic with the purchase of a new radio system.
City council on Wednesday sent the $1.7 million purchase request to the board of control. Police Chief Robin Lees said earlier this week he hopes to have the equipment in place by June.
The new system has the potential for allowing the department to encrypt, or hide, its signals from the airwaves unless someone has one of the new radios with the encryption code. A decision on encryption will rest with the mayor. The radios are estimated to cost about $3,000 apiece.
Although the city does not have to encrypt the signals with the new system, police officials said they want to encrypt radio traffic to increase officer safety.
Although most block-watch leaders who were reached said they have no opinion, two of them did.
Jerry O’Hara of the Garden District Neighborhood Association on the West Side said he is against the city encrypting the radios. He said several citizens in his block watch have police scanners and they help them become involved.
O’Hara said if a member hears of a call in their neighborhood, they will be on the lookout to assist police if they see something out of the ordinary.
“They’re going to lose a lot of eyes,” O’Hara said. “A lot of people listen to that.”
Marguerite Douglas of the Lincoln Knolls Community Block Watch on the East Side said the encryption policy has been discussed at several block-watch meetings, and she said the consensus seems to be that by encrypting their radios, the police will have the upper hand on anyone engaged in criminal activity because they will not be able to know if police have been dispatched and are on their way.
Douglas said, however, members also understand that people like to listen to the police and fire radio so they can know what is going on in their neighborhoods.
“It’s kind of two-sided,” Douglas said.
Still, Douglas said, she supports encryption because she believes it will make it harder for people to commit crimes because they will not know the movements of police.