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City attorneys are reviewing the legality of restoring public access to first responder radio traffic after Mayor Rick Blangiardi expressed interest in a contractual agreement with Honolulu media outlets permitting them to listen in.
The public’s ability to monitor the radio communications of taxpayer-funded departments ended Feb. 15 when the final phase of a $15 million conversion from the city’s analog system to a P25 Motorola digital system was completed. The decision to upgrade the radios and encrypt real-time first responder radio traffic was made during former Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser shared a copy of a 2018 agreement between the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Las Vegas media outlets with Blangiardi, the Honolulu City Council, the Honolulu Fire Department, Honolulu Police Department and city Emergency Services Department.
The agreement allowed news agencies to pay for their own Motorola P25 radios, which cost as much as $10,000 each. Media organizations agreed not to alter the equipment or use them in any way other than to monitor the channels approved and programmed by LVMPD.
Police are allowed to inspect the scanners to ensure compliance with the agreement.
After reviewing the Las Vegas agreement, Blangiardi, who spent 43 years in the television news industry, said he is “very interested” in executing a similar agreement to restore public access to police, fire and EMS radio communications.
“I understand the need to have access, we are looking at that. I would like to get to a place where we don’t close out the news media,” he told the Star-Advertiser. “I take this very seriously. I have always been a strong advocate, on a personal level, for transparency in leadership.”
Any agreement would be pending the approval of Corporation Counsel Dana Viola.
The issue of the first responder radio upgrade and loss of public access to live communications was on Wednesday’s Police Commission agenda.
Police Commissioner Ann Botticelli, a retired communications executive and former journalist, pressed police officials about restoring access to patrol radio traffic. After reviewing the email alerts HPD has been sending the media since the upgrade, she said it does not provide real-time notification and documents a very small portion of police activity.
“I know the scanner is going off more than that. I used to be a reporter. I would hear it going off all the time,” Botticelli said during the commission meeting. “It does look like there is some selectivity happening here in what is being reported to the media.”
Botticelli said granting access to the P25 patrol radio chatter “seems like the best course of action.”
Assistant Police Chief Darren Chun, who supervises HPD’s Communications Division, told commissioners the department would consider restoring public access to patrol radio communications but past experience makes that difficult.
“The media outlets have re-programmed these scanners to access our tactical channels and unauthorized channels. …. Once you give out these radios with the particular key in it they can always be hacked,” Chun said. “That is the issues we have with providing these kind of resources to the media. We start losing control when we implement those types of protocols.”
Interim Police Chief Rade Vanic did not respond to a Star-Advertiser request asking for the identity of the media outlets alleged to have re-programmed channels. He also did not respond to questions about the Las Vegas agreement.
Honolulu Fire Chief Sheldon Kalani Hao and Emergency Services Director Dr. James Ireland did not reply to Star-Advertiser requests for comment about the agreement or if they believed public access to their communications should be granted.
Chun also said federal law and the need to keep personal information and other sensitive data confidential require HPD to keep the channels encrypted.
When radio communications were public, listeners would hear police, fire and EMS dispatchers in real-time sending officers to a scene and what witnesses had reported.
Now police send a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet attached to an email including the date, time, initial case classification and initial disposition for certain incidents, such as homicides, robberies, critical and fatal traffic collisions, barricade situations and missing person cases.
In contrast, HFD issues real-time email and text messages with abbreviations letting the media know which units are being sent where and what kind of emergency they are responding to. The Fire Department also puts out multiple news releases via email almost daily detailing noteworthy incidents.
EMS updates and emails to the media a running list of its calls in real-time using Google Documents, and often follows up with more details.
City Council Chairman Tommy Waters and Council members Augie Tulba, and Carol Fukunaga said they support public access to P25 radio traffic.
“I support restoration of public and media access to previously available first responder communications. The airwaves are public and the first responder departments and the radio systems they use are funded by the public,” Fukunaga said. “With the exception of private medical information and sensitive, tactical operations by law enforcement, the encrypted transmissions should be made available to taxpayers.”
Waters, who has authored legislation to increase transparency and improve police communication, said he will introduce a resolution urging the administration to restore access. Accountability and transparency are “not just buzz words for the Honolulu City Council,” he said.
“These values are behind the four charter amendments I introduced that are making their way through the Council process. In the meantime, I believe the Police Department and all our first responder agencies should work with our local media organizations to restore access to the radio transmissions,” Waters said. “Other jurisdictions have found ways to make that happen, and I believe that should be a priority for our city.”
In a written statement, Say told the Star-Advertiser, “We serve the public with accountability and transparency, and believe all government entities should do the same. We look forward to asking hard questions as we enter the budget process for all city departments.”
The other five Council members did not reply to Star-Advertiser requests for comment.
In addition to HPD, HFD and EMS, the other city agencies using the new encrypted system are the Ocean Safety Division, Department of Information Technology, Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, Department of Facilities Maintenance, Department of Environmental Services and Department of Parks and Recreation.
This story has been updated to include the comment of Councilman Calvin Say. An earlier version of this story said he was one of the Council members who did not respond.
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