Comment on NYPD faces backlash as it prepares to encrypt radio communications | New York | The Guardian
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months agoPolice interactions are public information. If you go to a police station and do a FOIA request, you get all that info anyway. Why would it need to be kept secret before the point it is requested?
Apart from the fact that many departments deny legal FOIA requests and force people to take legal action to get the information they are legally entitled to.
Oh wait. Maybe that’s why they want encryption.
BirdyBoogleBop@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
Isn’t personal information taken out of FOIA requests first? I can see why victims wouldn’t their names and addresses given freely out. Heck I think certain perpertrators should get a modicum of privacy too.
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
Suspects would already be covered, FOIA requests usually aren’t released before a case is closed, and you ideally don’t close a case half finished.
Yes, some information is redacted from FOIA requests, but it’s normally not stuff that would be broadcast over a radio. For instance, they may blur the faces of bystanders, or mute a section where someone is giving the officer personal info. But again, there would be no reason to broadcast this info over the radio regardless.