Local police scanners to go dark to the public Tuesday

EVERETT — Police radio communications across Snohomish County will be encrypted starting May 6, cutting off public access to real-time scanner traffic, officials announced Tuesday at a press conference outside the new Snohomish County 911 headquarters.

In this context, encrypting means converting police radio communications into a secure digital format that cannot be accessed by the public using traditional scanners.

The change is part of a $72 million emergency radio system overhaul — years in the making — that officials say will improve coverage, safety and reliability for first responders across the county’s 2,200 square miles. The system replaces aging infrastructure described by officials as unreliable and outdated.

The change comes as emergency responders switch to a new P25 radio system, part of a five-year, countywide effort to modernize emergency communication infrastructure.

The current system is over 20 years old and prone to congestion during high call volume. Parts were sourced from eBay, and cybersecurity updates were no longer available.

“It’s been an incredibly long journey to get here,” said Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring, president of the Snohomish County 911 board. “I remember conversations, probably eight, nine, 10 years ago, about, ‘Hey, what are we going to do to replace this aging emergency radio system?’”

The transition includes more than 5,000 new radios and 22 tower sites serving 43 public safety agencies and more than 844,000 residents. It was funded through a countywide emergency communications sales tax approved by voters in 2018.

Nehring thanked voters for that support: “You stepped up and funded this system back in 2018, and the beautiful thing about that vote … is that it funds this system in perpetuity.”

However, the ballot language at the time made no mention of encryption.

“I don’t think something like that would typically be on a ballot measure because the ballot measure was just asking for funding only,” Nehring said. “I don’t even remember talking about encryption … until we’d gotten closer to the system being implemented.”

The change means law enforcement communications will no longer be available via scanners or smartphone apps. Fire and EMS channels will remain open — at least initially — according to Snohomish County 911 officials.

Terry Peterson, deputy director of Snohomish County 911, acknowledged the impact on transparency.

“There have been communications with the media about maintaining some sort of access to information so that we can maintain transparency and maintain that information channel,” Peterson said.

Reporters and the general public will still be able to request incident records after the fact, Peterson added.

Executive Director Kurt Mills noted the system has been tested and is already operational, with the cutover scheduled for May 6. Dispatchers are expected to move into the new 911 headquarters down the street on Everett Mall Way in late May.

“Today marks our celebration of a multi-year effort and an investment of $72 million to build out our new radio system,” Mills said. “Doing all this over the course of a number of years, through a pandemic, has been quite a challenge.”

This change follows King County’s move to encrypted police radios in March 2023.

Snohomish County Sheriff Susanna Johnson made her case for encryption, citing three main reasons: first responder safety, the protection of investigative information and public privacy.

“With the proliferation of smartphones and apps, it is not uncommon for people to listen to us live,” Johnson said. “If you can imagine what that means for first responders … we will literally lose evidence because they know we’re coming.”

She added that even routine stops can expose private data.

“If I stop you on a traffic stop and I’m going to run your information to see if you have a valid driver’s license, your date of birth is out there for everybody to hear,” Johnson said.

Everett Master Police Officer Travis Katzer, who serves as technology and innovations officer and team leader for a regional SWAT unit, described a moment when he realized scanner access posed risks.

About 15 years ago, Katzer said, he arrested a man in Everett who had a warrant. Shortly after calling in the arrest over the radio, he heard his own voice coming from the man’s pocket — the broadcast had been playing on speakerphone.

Officials said the upgraded system includes expanded battery backups, interference location tools, fueling capacity and Wi-Fi programming. It was built by the same team that kept the legacy system running — often with limited resources.

“It’s nine people who maintained a legacy radio system and nine people who built a new radio system all at the same time,” said Howard Tucker, radio systems manager.

Everett Fire Chief Dave DeMarco said the new network “will carry at least twice the radio traffic that the existing radio network will carry.”

For now, officials have not finalized how media and the public will receive breaking emergency information moving forward.

“This isn’t just about today,” Mills said. “This is about the future. We have a 15-year plan to replace the system, to add towers if necessary, to handle the break-fix type of things that happen every day with our police and fire agencies.”

Aspen Anderson: 425-339-3192; aspen.anderson@heraldnet.com; X: @aspenwanderson.