Prof. Emmanuel Mauleón Quoted in Star Tribune About Police Use of Scanning Encryption

Professor Emmanuel Mauleón was quoted in the Minnesota Star Tribune about the police department shifting to encryption that prevents the public from listening in on radio traffic between officers and emergency dispatch over scanners. Departments that encrypt, including the Minneapolis Police Department, say they are trying to abide by federal requirements that prohibit publicly airing some information, and to ensure officers’ safety in situations where a suspect might be listening to the scanners. Prof. Mauleón said that encryption can be particularly worrisome given the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd — and the Trump administration’s dismissal of a consent-decree agreement between Minneapolis and the Department of Justice mandating police reform. The agreement with the state Department of Human Rights remains in place, and the city has said it will follow through on the federal consent decree despite the dismissal. He said, “Any time that you’re reducing a transparency function in a place where there is not a high degree of trust between certain communities and the police, on the back of getting rid of the federal consent decree ... I think that it would make any community that’s sort of reeling worried about, ‘What is this police department going to do?’”