Police Scanners Will Be Blocked In Genesee County Starting This Week

Genesee County 911 will be switching to encrypted radios this week, making it impossible to monitor radio traffic with a police scanner.

The move to the encrypted radios will officially take place at 3pm on Thursday the 30th. NBC25 is reporting that the move is focused on keeping the officers safe, but not everyone is thrilled with the move.

There is a fairly big group of people that monitor police scanners for information, including the media. There are also sites like Flint Police Operations that act as a liaison between the scanner information and the general public.

A spokesperson from Genesee County 911 said that it's all about safety and being effective on the job.

The bad guys are listening and if they could monitor us they know when we are coming, that we are coming, how close we might be

Many other states have started using encryption technology to keep their radio traffic private. There have even been lawsuits against the moves in a few of these states, but so far nothing has worked in the favor of those opposing encryption.

I really think this is more of a trust issue than anything. Nobody can argue that blocking radio traffic prevents criminals from monitoring the police. The problem is that a growing number of people don't trust their local police department.

Those people see this as another move to keep police from getting in trouble for alleged wrong doing.

Do you think the encryption is a good thing?