Call to Action: Restore Public Access and Transparency to Hennepin County Dispatch Radio Communications.

On Wednesday October 16th 2019, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) switched their three main law enforcement dispatch radio channels to an encrypted system. This change has effectively shut down the ability of the public to monitor in real time public safety information that affects the communities served by the HCSO Communications Center. 

By limiting the public’s ability to know what is taking place in their communities we now have limited access to information that could be beneficial to our safety by having to rely on delayed press releases by departments l, hoping the local news media has picked up the story or wait for the monthly police blotter in the local paper. 

This change also hampers the public’s ability to track criminal activity that is already being under-reported by local departments to the public. The ability to monitor the dispatch audio allows us to keep a better record of what types of incidents are being reported, where incidents are occurring and the type of response that is being given to these incidents. 

The residents of Hennepin County deserve to know what is happening in their cities through unbiased reports of what is occurring in their communities. The fact that there are several Facebook and Twitter pages dedicated to reporting crime news within the HCSO jurisdiction that cumulatively have well over 280,000 followers is evidence that the public at large finds value in the information these pages post based on what is heard on the police scanners. 

There are no reports of police dispatch audio or the public posting of them hampering criminal investigations, searches or endangering law enforcement officers in anyway within Hennepin County, which was also confirmed in a Star Tribune report published on Oct. 16, 2019 (Link: http://www.startribune.com/radio-silence-on-911-scanners-as-hennepin-county-sheriff-encrypts-emergency-calls-radio-conversations/563247072/ 

The info posted by these scanner incident pages related to missing children, dangerous incidents within neighborhoods and close-quarter living/working environments has proven beneficial to the public by relaying information that puts more eyes and ears on the streets and giving citizens the ability to avoid areas where an incident is taking place. 

The admins of the pages and groups listed below stand united in our belief that the encrypting of the HCSO dispatch audio needs to be removed and returned to normal operations. We have no issue with tactical communications being encrypted for officer safety and to keep sensitive information private; however, the day-to-day dispatch audio is a vital part of keeping the public informed as to the safety, livability and prosperity of their neighborhoods.

Please consider signing our petition to restore the dispatch audio to an unencrypted system. In addition to signing the petition, we urge all of you to also contact the Hennepin County Sheriff directly at sheriff@hennepin.us or 612-348-3744 and the 911 director Captain Kevin Schwartz at Kevin.schwartz@hennepin.us or 612-348-4024 and ask that they restore the dispatch audio to an unencrypted system for public access and transparency.

Signed and supported by the following admin teams:

Crime Watch Minneapolis & St. Paul

Minneapolis Scanner 

Hennepin County Police & Fire Monitoring 

Polk County Police & Fire Monitoring 

Minnesota Public Safety Monitoring 

Saint Paul Police and Fire Scanner group

True North Minneapolis Legacy group

Anoka County Police Clips 

Minnesota Predatory Offenders & Suspects

Washington County Watchdog

TC Crime Watch group

Northside Scanner and News

Edina Police and Fire Page