Encrypted radios will bar eavesdroppers from signals People can and do listen to our radios and we are aware of that. Superintendent Gary SmithBlurb1People who snoop on the police by listening in on their scanner communications will have to find something else to occupy their time in future.
Police are changing
their radio communications to prevent them being snooped on by criminals, boy racers and anyone else with a scanner.
The new system may be about four years away in Rotorua but an encrypted digital radio system is to be launched in Wellington next month, then extended to Christchurch and Auckland by November 2010. Other districts will be added over the next four years.
Bay of Plenty Superintendent Gary Smith could not say exactly when the new system would be implemented in Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty District, which also includes Tauranga, Taupo and the eastern Bay of Plenty, but said it would be within four years.
Eventually, the digital technology will enable 1.7 million messages to be sent on a network of over 300 radio sites to 2500 vehicles and 3000 handheld radios.
It will also make it more difficult for people to track police activities via scanners.
Mr Smith said he knew members of the public listened to police scanners and police purposely didn't reveal too much information when communicating on them.
"People can and do listen to our radios and we are aware of that. We take precautions about what is said," Mr Smith said.
Listening to a scanner was not illegal but it was against the law to act on information obtained from one.
Mr Smith couldn't say if members of the public would be able to access the new system but said it would give police a much more secure radio network.
Scanner security had been an issue for the police for a long time and he believed the new system would be well received, he said.
Christchurch area commander Malcolm Johnston complained in February that 300 thuggish boy racers who ambushed a lone police offer, screaming out "kill the pig, box him in", knew he was on his own because they were listening in on scanners.
The officer was surrounded by the boy racers, had bottles thrown at him and was fired at with air guns.
"They knew that there was only one car coming at that stage," Mr Johnston said. "The whole thing was an orchestrated ambush." Additional reporting NZPA
