18 January 2024
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Law enforcement agencies across the state are encrypting their radio traffic so the public can no longer hear it, and Harvey County is doing it this week.
The block on Harvey County’s law enforcement radio traffic comes after a change to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) security policy.
The policy now says law enforcement agencies can’t pass sensitive information unencrypted across public networks.
Criminal history, social security numbers, and addresses are all considered criminal justice information protected from public view by the FBI’s updated CJI policy.
“People are getting that personal information, identity thefts are going up, and citizens are having problems with that,” said Lieutenant Josh Millspaugh of the Newton Police Department.
Already the police department has gotten some complaints about the change, according to Millspaugh.
“A lot of our citizens love to listen to the radio, and that way, they kind of know what’s going on in the law enforcement world,” Millspaugh said.
The department doesn’t have much choice in the matter, according to Millspaugh. Their security has to be updated by the end of the department’s audit cycle in 2025.
Newton isn’t the only place implementing changes. The Kansas Highway Patrol is in charge of enforcing the rule across the state.
Not every agency is moving at the same pace.
“It’s gonna depend on their budgets to be honest, I mean none of this stuff is cheap,” said KHP Captain Jim Oehm.
It costs Newton PD about $40,000 to update its system.
According to KHP Captain Jim Oehm, KHP will enforce the policy across departments statewide but will be lenient toward agencies with tighter belts.
“We’re trying to work with agencies that are really financially strapped to come up with solutions or try to guide them toward grant resources,” Oehm said.
According to Oehm, as long as law enforcement is working on upping security measures, the KHP won’t have repercussions for them if they aren’t completely up to standards by the time audits take place.
We reached out to Sedgwick County Emergency Communications, they declined an on camera interview, but said they’re planning to convert their systems to comply with FBI rules by the end of this year.