Calgary police ending news media access to police radio channels, citing privacy concerns

For the past several years, Calgary has been the only major Canadian city where police allowed news outlets to keep an ear on their response to criminal activity by letting them listen in on their radio chatter.

But that won't be the case much longer.

While some police radio channels have long been blocked from media monitoring — allowing officers to have private tactical discussions, for example — soon none of the digital frequencies will be open to media to listen to. Media access will be revoked Feb. 23.

The Calgary Police Service says it's making the change for privacy reasons and to comply with provincial privacy legislation. But critics worry the move could reduce police accountability and filter information about what's happening in their communities.

"Details aired on the police radio system are extremely sensitive and need to be treated as such," said a CPS spokesperson in a prepared statement.

"Although we have an agreement in place preventing media from using this information in the news, we cannot control who hears that information on the police radios they currently have access to."

Journalists monitor the radios so they can quickly dispatch resources to possible crime or accident scenes, and inform the public about what's happening. Calgary media outlets have long agreed not to report directly from the radios, requiring journalists to confirm details with officials before reporting. 

CPS is working on an alternative solution to ensure news outlets can continue keeping the public informed. It's developing a system where local media will be advised of potential incidents after police have determined what is happening and the scene is safe. CPS met with media last week to discuss the approach.   

News outlets will continue to have access to CPS's media team and social media.

The public also used to be able to listen to police radio chatter until CPS moved to an encrypted radio system in 2018, giving access only to authorized media.

For Brent Jolly, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists — which represents journalists across the country — the impact of such decisions goes beyond newsrooms. 

While he understands police concerns with privacy, Jolly said cutting off radio access in other cities has limited journalists' ability to examine how police operate, and from holding them accountable when necessary.

"The media is an independent monitor and society needs that and democracy needs that," he said.

"And this is kind of the last vestige of a system that has completely been overhauled, that has prevented media from adequately doing its job."

Last one standing

Once Calgary police pull the plug next month, no police radio activity in Canada's 10 biggest cities will be monitored by so-called "scanners," either by the public or the media.

Citing privacy concerns, Edmonton police moved to an encrypted radio system in 2021, locking out the public and the media from listening to police radios. Access in the capital city was nearly lost years earlier, in the late 1990s, following changes to privacy legislation. But then-premier Ralph Klein, a former television news reporter, had the regulations tweaked so media in that city could continue listening in.

Regina and Saskatoon police revoked media access to their radio scanner channels in 2019. A few months later, Saskatoon launched a secure online portal that gives news outlets automatically generated information from dispatch call entries.

It's now been a decade since Toronto police moved to an encrypted radio system, instead keeping the media and public informed through police social media accounts.

Kelly Sundberg, a professor of criminology at Mount Royal University, says he's surprised it took Calgary police so long to follow in the footsteps of other police services across Canada. He sees this change as a good thing, and said he's optimistic CPS will come up with a good alternative to keep the media apprised.

He speculates the change is an outcome of a number of breaches within the RCMP that made headlines last year. In Alberta, an RCMP officer was accused of leaking information from a police database to the Rwandan government.

Sundberg said he wouldn't be surprised if that database was being audited more closely now.

"If there's a risk that someone's name and criminal record could be broadcast and that a media outlet receives that information, that's a blatant breach of that person's privacy. And it would be irresponsible for the police not to pull back on those devices."

In a statement to CBC News, Alberta RCMP said that's one reason why they moved to an encrypted system in 2016.

"One of the benefits of switching to an encrypted radio system is to control the distribution of information from databases … which are protected under the privacy act," said Alberta RCMP spokesperson Troy Savinkoff.

While it's generally more publicly accessible to tune into police radio transmissions south of the border, many U.S. police departments — including in New York, Chicago and Denver — have recently encrypted their radio systems.

'A lot of stuff can get missed'

As a former overnight and crime reporter with the Calgary Sun, Bryan Passifiume said he relied heavily on scanners to cover fatal collisions, murders and other crimes — "the news that the public deserves to know," he said.

Now the Ottawa bureau chief with the Toronto Sun, Passifiume said he thinks the public should be concerned.

"A lot of stuff can get missed when the police 100 per cent control the narrative and the police 100 per cent control the information that goes to the media."

Passifiume said many newsrooms in Toronto stopped covering police-related breaking news because it became unattainable once access to police channels was lost.

"Despite what people may think of our profession, all we want to do is provide information. We want to give the best information as quickly as possible, as accurately as possible," he said. 

"And sometimes what is in the best interest of the public is not in the best interest of the police."

Public transparency

Tom Engel, an Edmonton-based criminal defence and civil rights lawyer, said he questions if this move actually has to do with privacy. If it does, he said, CPS would've gone to Alberta's privacy commissioner for an opinion.

"If the privacy commissioner had concerns about it and they weren't remediable, then yeah, if I was a lawyer advising the Calgary Police Service, I would give them advice indicating that you better stop doing that," said Engel.

"If we conclude that it's not really for privacy … then you have to look at, what would the other motive be? And that is to decrease public transparency in policing, which is a problem given that the public has an interest in knowing about how their police service operates."

CPS confirmed to CBC News that it "didn't need to contact the privacy commissioner as most law enforcement agencies in Canada have already removed their radios."

Elaine Schiman, spokesperson for the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta, said she couldn't speak to specifics of this case. But generally speaking, she said, the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP Act) applies only to recorded information.

CPS pointed to that provincial privacy legislation as a reason it's making this move.

"If the scanner info is recorded, then it would be subject to the right of access under the FOIP Act and subject to any exemptions to the right of access.… Even if the scanner info is recorded and subject to the privacy provisions, disclosure is discretionary if permitted," said Schiman in a statement.

But Sharon Polsky, president of the Privacy and Access Council of Canada, supports the move by CPS. She said the legislation is extremely nuanced and there are still risks of breaching privacy, even if newsrooms aren't keeping records of scanner audio.

She pointed to Section 38 of the FOIP Act, which states: "The head of a public body must protect personal information by making reasonable security arrangements against such risks as unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure or destruction."

"In any organization — whether it's a media organization, the police themselves, a hospital, any organization — people are the weakest link," said Polsky.

"A contract is great, but can you be certain that everybody in the office has read it, understands it correctly? Contracts, laws — they're in place, but a lot of people disregard them, they don't follow them."

Unlike what Ralph Klein did in the 1990s, it seems doubtful the provincial government will get involved in the CPS decision. A provincial spokesperson declined comment on the move, saying it was an internal policy change and not a legislative one.

The Calgary Police Commission is also aware of the change. A spokesperson for the oversight body said the commission hasn't had a chance to discuss the particular decision, but it expects CPS to comply with privacy legislation and be proactive in keeping the community informed.