Alisa M. Schafer

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

MANITOWOC - For those listening in on a police scanner, radio transmissions have gone eerily quiet in Manitowoc County.

Over the past year, Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department, Manitowoc Police Department and Two Rivers Police Department have made the switch to exclusively using encrypted channels for their radio transmissions.

Sheriff Robert Hermann said the decision to switch was mainly to keep law enforcement officers safe. The encryption used in Manitowoc County is the same used for federal-level law enforcement and prevents people from hearing the chatter between officers.

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“I can understand people like to monitor the scanners to find out what is happening in certain situations,” Hermann said. “However, our officers’ safety certainly outweighs that curiosity.”

The Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department switched to encrypted communication in November while the Manitowoc Police Department has been using encrypted channels since July.

Hermann said the widespread use of smartphones and the availability of the police scanner app for anyone who has access to the internet meant more people committing crimes were able to listen in on what the officers were doing.

Manitowoc Police Chief Nick Reimer said city officers were encountering situations where someone who was trespassing or stealing had their phones out to listen to the police scanner in case officers were responding to their location.

“It’s really a good thing, this decision,” Reimer said. “It is available to us, so why not use it? We want to make sure to keep everybody safe, including our officers.”

Reimer said law enforcement has had the ability to use encryption for years, and they would occasionally use it for sensitive situations. However, it did open up officers and dispatchers to confusion about whether they needed to use the encrypted channels or not, and communications were often delayed while officers switched back and forth between channels.

The whole county recently switched to using digital rather than analog signals for their communications and the switch to using encryptions came in concert with that. Reimer said communications have been stronger and clearer with the new equipment.

Reimer said he still wants to make sure the police department is as transparent as possible. He said he will be sending information to the public through press releases, social media posts and email.

“We always want people to feel we are being transparent — we want people to know what we do,” Reimer said. “But the information shared on our radios could damage our investigation if the wrong people found out.”

Law enforcement radio encryption is not a new thing. Police and sheriff's departments across the nation have been exclusively using encrypted channels for years. The Sheboygan Police Department also recently decided to make the switch, which will take effect in November.

Not everyone is thrilled with the change. In a previous USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin article, Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, said it would be a “tragic decision” to take information away from the public.

“There are questions about police conduct and accountability that hinges on the ability of media to know, real-time, what is happening in communities in regards to police response,” Lueders said. “Why would the police, especially at this point in our history, demand less scrutiny and culpability? Are they trying to keep people with their cellphone cameras away? Is that what they are really after?”

Alisa M. Schafer: 920-686-2105 or aschafer@gannett.com