The Topeka Police Department in about mid-March placed a 15-minute delay on its radio traffic broadcast free of charge at Broadcastify.com, police Chief Bill Cochran said this past week.

That move means online listeners hear conversations 15 minutes after they take place.

But people using police radio scanners continue to hear Topeka police traffic in a manner that is not delayed or encrypted, Cochran said.

He said the 15-minute delay for the online traffic provides "the best of both worlds," balancing public safety and transparency by continuing to give the public access to police radio traffic but providing officers more time to capture criminals and secure scene of violent crimes.

"It has been working fine for those who receive the internet broadcast feed of police calls," Cochran said.

He said the Topeka department has not encrypted any of its frequencies, at a time when many law enforcement agencies have done that amid concerns that criminals are monitoring scanner traffic.

"The national trend for many (law enforcement) agencies is to encrypt all police radio traffic for a variety of safety reasons," Cochran said.

He said Topeka police were given the option of doing that during the administration of former Shawnee County Sheriff Herman Jones, who left office last month to become superintendent of the Kansas Highway Patrol.

The sheriff's office oversees the Shawnee County Emergency Communications Center, which coordinates the radio communications of local law enforcement, firefighting and emergency response agencies.

Brian Hill, who replaced Jones as sheriff last month, said this past week that — while the sheriff's office hasn't delayed or encrypted its radio communications — he's evaluating its options and plans to discuss the topic with Cochran this coming week.