Thank you State Sen. Becker! I too believe there's a way to protect people's privacy at the same as promoting and requiring transparency of other information on the airwaves.

Based on police behavior around the country, it’s quite clear that “transparency” is in order. I support Senator Becker’s bill.

"Like other departments, Palo Alto police said their switch to encryption was prompted by an October 2020 directive from the state Department of Justice requiring all police agencies that rely on the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS), a database used by law enforcement agencies across the state, to protect personal information."

Let it be known that the STATE DOJ is ultimately responsible for the recent actions taken to reduce police transparency.

"Under the directive, agencies were allowed to do so either by encrypting their radio communications or by adopting policies that protect the personal information, which could mean relaying this information by cellphone, computer or other means."

Let me get this straight. Either A) use technology to automatically encrypt radio transmissions, or B) adopt a set of procedures which put an additional burden on police officers and a risk of failure in case of human error. It's easy to see why choice A is so appealing.

And all in the name of "protecting personally identifiable information such as Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and criminal records of individuals."

IMHO, this is a case of the cure being far worse than the original disease. We need to end the encryption of police radio communications ASAP.