New police, fire radios off-limits to media

A school shooting, a factory fire, a high-speed police chase through the heart of downtown -- residents are used to getting their public safety news fast from the news media that monitor police and fire radios and react quickly.

But that will end in Alachua County.

Prompt public notice of police and fire agency actions will be curtailed by a little-known board's decision Thursday to limit the public's access to a new emergency radio system.

The decision by representatives of the county's main police and firefighting agencies denies the media and the public the codes for a new digital communications system that cannot be accessed by police scanners.

Media organizations said the decision will deny the public timely and complete information.

"It's a tremendous disservice to the public," said WCJB-TV 20 News Director Harvie Nachlinger. "It's going to hamper our abilities to quickly and accurately report to the citizens what is going on in Alachua County."

The decision was made by the Radio Management Board. The board was created under a government contract between Alachua County and the city of Gainesville, the two primary users of the system.

The 5-1 decision binds all agencies using the system.

"The board determines system access for the system," said Brad Barber of GRUCom, which owns and operates the radio transmitting equipment.

The board also voted 6-0 to inform the media of its decision and of other sources of information, including public information officers.

A question of control

Among the agencies opposed to media access were Gainesville Fire Rescue and Alachua County Fire Rescue. They believe the public could get confidential medical information if access were granted.

Emergency medical communications between dispatchers and paramedics can currently be heard on scanners. Typically, that includes the age, gender and condition of a patient, but not the patient's name.

Alachua Fire Chief Will May said rescue agencies cannot stop the monitoring of those communications because they are on scanner channels that use easily accessible public airwaves.

May said the new system puts fire agencies with ambulances in a bind. They've purchased a system only they control, and it's unlawful for them to give the public the means of accessing potentially confidential medical information, May said.

"You can buy a VHF scanner and go to the FCC and get a listing of our frequencies anytime you want. We can't control that," May said. "But we are going to a digital system that we can control. We would have to provide the access to information that the law says we must protect as confidential."

The University Police Department also opposed public access to the codes. Chief Everett Stevens did not return phone messages left at his office.

Gainesville Police and the Alachua County Sheriff's Office believe the media should be able to continue to monitor police and fire activities.

"We have a very open relationship with the media, and everything we are doing is nothing that we are afraid of anybody hearing," Police Chief Norman Botsford said.

"Generally, it makes it easier for us if (the media) hears it on the radio and responds quickly. It saves us time in trying to notify you, and information probably gets out quicker and more accurately," he said.

Speed and accuracy

The law enforcement and fire agencies have public information officers who usually notify the media of major events. However, some incidents slip by or the notification is not timely.

Last week, for instance, a man tried to kidnap a Kanapaha Middle School student near the school about 8 a.m. The sheriff's office did not issue a media alert until about 3:30 p.m.

Instead, reporters, editors and news directors for decades have relied on scanners to learn immediately about crimes, fires and other disasters.

News professionals say the faster they get information, the faster it can be passed to the public through the Internet, television or radio.

Reporters also learn details from scanners that public information officers may not be aware of. That provides the public with a more complete account of an incident.

For instance, in a sheriff's pursuit of a rental truck through Gainesville this month, the media learned from the scanner -- not from spokespeople -- that a deputy fired two shots at the truck from a median in a busy street. The shooting was ruled justifiable days later.

"We believe it is a terrible policy to exclude the public and the press from monitoring police, safety and fire operations," said Jim Osteen, executive editor of The Gainesville Sun. "Relying solely on spokespersons, paid by the various agencies, for information is not in the public interest. To make a decision of this kind without full and fair discussion of the ramifications is unbelievable."

The new system relies on public airwaves but allows public agencies to scramble or encrypt the signals.

Monitoring of police and emergency communications is necessary to learn the effectiveness of an agency in responding to calls, said Rebecca Daugherty of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a national media advocacy group.

"Denying access would interfere very greatly with the media's ability to cover police and fire, and the public probably has no greater interest in an area a newspaper covers than those," Daugherty said.

"One of the reasons the public has grown to trust police is because of police scanners -- their minute-to-minute communications is out there for the public to see. It will assure the public the police are behaving as they should or, if they are not, there will be story after story about it," she said.

While scanners are a tool for reporters, they are a hobby for many members of the public.

"A lot of customers just like to know what is going on. A lot of them used them in the military," said Richard Peavy of the Archer Road Radio Shack. "It's not so much that they like to go and check out the scene, it's just that they like to know what's going on. I think it's the fact that they know what's going on before most other people do."

No assumptions

Osteen said The Sun will explore all options to remedy the situation.

However, the ultimate decision about who has radio access may rest with local elected officials.

"I wouldn't assume a decision staff has made is necessarily a final decision," City Commissioner Pegeen Hanrahan said.

"We always need to be cautious about excluding the press because it is an important part of our democracy," she said. "On the other hand, during the student murders there were some issues with the media knowing who the victims were before the families of the victims. It's probably not black and white."

Still, Hanrahan said, "If it has been open all this time and there have not been any problems and there has been more accurate reporting of the news, I think it is something that needs to be reviewed."

Cindy Swirko can be reached at 374-5024 or at swirkoc@gvillesun.com.

Ray Washington can be reached at 374-5026 or at washinr@gvillesun.com.

Contents © 2008 by David Schoenberger