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Fire and EMS ask Saint Clair County to pay up to about $55,000 to encrypt and reprogram radios
Summary
Fire and EMS association representatives asked the commission to fund encryption and standardized reprogramming of county Motorola and Kenwood radios, estimating roughly $55,000 for onsite work to secure channels and avoid public scanning of dispatch traffic.
Representatives of the county’s fire and EMS contingent told commissioners that public scanner apps and automated feeds have begun publishing unfiltered fire dispatch information and that encrypting fire channels would reduce safety and privacy risks. The fire and EMS association representative (speaker 9) said the work would also allow the county to standardize programming inconsistencies that have occurred across departments.
"It's estimated... somewhere in the neighborhood of about $55,000 is the fix," the association representative said, describing a vendor estimate that would cover onsite reprogramming and coordination across stations. Staff discussed whether to lock prices now, include the expense in this year’s budget, or defer to next year's budget, and noted logistical coordination would be required so agencies remain interoperable during the transition.
