The police-radio broadcast of a manhunt for three suspects in Riverside last week provided riveting theater for those listening in on scanners.

Officers hovering in a helicopter provided play-by-play as the suspects raced from yard to yard. Sirens of arriving patrol cars wailed as officers spoke to dispatchers. Other officers urgently gave directions to those patrol cars.

But officers and dispatchers put out information that they’d prefer the public – especially the suspects, in the event they had the tools to monitor the transmissions – not hear: The exact address where police believed a suspect was hiding. The locations where patrol cars were deployed. Even the phone number of one of the suspects.

The hobbyists’ enjoyment, and the police concerns, vanished Wednesday, June 29, when the Riverside Police Department switched to the county’s encrypted radio system, two days ahead of its announced schedule. Only those with specially issued and programmed radios can now hear Riverside police dispatchers and officers talk over the Public Safety Enterprise Communication system, or PSEC.

More important than the encryption, said Riverside Deputy Chief John Wallace, is that his officers will now be able to talk directly with deputies who work for the Sheriff’s Department by switching over to their frequency, or vice versa. During the June 24 manhunt, Riverside officers and deputies had to relay messages to each other through their dispatchers, delaying communications.

By the end of 2016, neighboring Corona also plans to join Riverside, Murrieta, Banning, 17 cities whose police services are provided by sheriff’s deputies, and county-wide agencies including the Sheriff’s Department, District Attorney’s Office and Department of Animal Services in using PSEC.

“Huge is an understatement,” Wallace said. “This is a giant leap forward as far as we’re concerned, being able to communicate with our law enforcement partners.”

The county’s $172 million PSEC system provides coverage to 95 percent of the county by area, compared to 60 percent under the old network it replaced, and provides a single communications platform that would be especially important in the event of disaster.

When Corona joins, almost 85 percent of the county by population will be patrolled by police who use PSEC.

The county initially struggled to find partners when PSEC went on the air in January 2014.

Murrieta, according to city documents, ultimately decided that its own radio system had too many limitations and that the work-arounds to talk directly to sheriff’s deputies were unreliable.

A staff report to the Riverside City Council said that the city needed a new police radio system, partly because the hardware was old and could not be repaired. The council budgeted $7 million for new radios and other costs associated with joining PSEC.

Riverside’s fire department is not on PSEC, although Cal Fire / Riverside County Fire is.

DEADLY CONSEQUENCES

Concerns in the Inland Empire about the ability of different agencies to talk with each other directly on police radios – known in police parlance as interoperability – came to the forefront during the May 9, 1980 multi-agency manhunt for Norco bank robbers, Riverside Lt. Christian Dinco said. Deputy James Evans was gunned down on a dirt road in Lytle Creek after he could not receive a report from a different agency’s helicopter crew agency warning of an ambush.

With the myriad freeways and surface streets in the Inland Empire that connect cities and the two counties, crooks can and do zig-zag in and out of jurisdictions, creating the need for communication among agencies with their own radio systems.

If traffic allows, for instance, someone fleeing a crime in Corona could make it to San Bernardino in about 30 minutes and, if he or she diverted onto surface streets, involve seven law-enforcement agencies: Corona, Riverside and San Bernardino police; the sheriff’s departments in Riverside and San Bernardino counties; and the California Highway Patrol.

The idea that criminals monitor the frequencies is not far-fetched, Dinco said. He said that when he patrolled, he would arrest at least a couple of people each year who had police scanners.

Now, anyone with a smartphone can download an app with scanner broadcasts from around the country.

COMMUNITY REACTION

Many members of the popular and pro-law enforcement Facebook page What is Going on in Riverside County? supported Riverside going silent for sake of officer safety, but others, in posts and interviews, said they were disappointed with the change.

“I understand the privacy aspect that the PD wants,” Jesse Aronson said, “but I also believe that people knowing what is going on can help with public safety. Sometimes it turns out to be nothing and we can breathe easier, other times it can be more serious and I’m able to take precautions like bringing the dogs in the house, making sure to keep an eye out as a witness to help, safely of course, and alerting neighbors to be sure they lock their doors.”

Riverside police have increased the number of news releases it issues and puts them on two public platforms: the department Facebook page and an emailed community newsletter operated by a third party called Nextdoor.

But Wallace said staffing issues made it unlikely that police would be able to provide real-time information on events. Few of the department’s Twitter messages describe in-progress situations such as suspect searches or investigations that force road closures.

Wallace said he understood listeners’ disappointment in losing the radio signal.

“Our first priority is always gong to be officers out in the field. Sometimes that’s done by not allowing a live feed,” Wallace said.

Contact the writer: brokos@pe.com or 951-368-9569