Minneapolis law enforcement is ensuring sensitive information is kept private.
By encrypting police scanners, the public will no longer be able to listen in to 911 calls or police chatter. Critics say the move will negatively affect police transparency, however.
Speaking with WCCO's Adam and Jordanna, Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt debunked that theory.
"Some people think that, 'OK, we're doing it to hide things, we're doing it out of malice.' That's not it," Witt explains. "It is about privacy. There's a lot of information that is provided on our radios, and it's to get officers, deputies, troopers the information that they need to be more successful at those calls. And that's private data."
Witt points out there's a mandate from the Federal Government about what information should be relayed over open airways and that she's happy Minneapolis has encrypted their channels.
"We are responding to calls where people are experiencing some of the worst days of their life," Witt says. "They deserve privacy as well. There's the other part about that too, where it's officer safety, you know. Not everybody wants the information for good reasons."
She states there is too much information on those lines to keep them open.
The city is the largest in the state to now encrypt it's police scanners. The information will still remain public in other ways however. The city is rolling out a new online dashboard that will refresh with information on police calls and more every 30 minutes.