PEORIA, Ill. – It may soon become harder for you – and us – to follow along with Peoria Police activity.
More than three-million dollars has been set aside in the city budget for the police department to upgrade its nine-year-old radios.
That includes the ability to encrypt scanner traffic – making it harder for anyone with a police scanner to listen to police and potentially first responder activity.
“I think there’s some concern by some agencies that the audio is too readily available,” said David Tuttle, former Peoria Emergency Communications director, and current member of the Peoria and Stark Counties Joint Emergency Telephone System Board. “Encrypted audio would remove that ability for folks on the scanner or an app to listen to certain radio channels.”
Tuttle spoke with 25 News.
But media outlets wouldn’t have access to the scanner traffic either, making it much more difficult to report on some potential breaking news situations.
“We’re only asking that the media who stand in the shoes of the public have access to the transmissions,” Chicago media attorney Steve Mandell told 25 News. “Of course, the media isn’t going to disrupt the channels of communication.”
Mandell is representing Chicago-area media outlets in an attempt to try and regain media access to that scanner traffic.
He says he thinks it stems from protestors disrupting radio traffic during police brutality incidents back in 2020.
Peoria Police did not respond to a 25 News request for comment.
