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A comment on The N.Y.P.D. Is Upgrading Its Radios. The Public Won't Be Able to Tune In.. Parent comment

Re:The N.Y.P.D. Is Upgrading Its Radios. The Public Won't Be... by woodruffw on Sunday November 26, 2023 @07:52PM (#38426838)
> secure communication for me, but not for thee.

Nobody would be opposed to the NYPD having an authenticated channel for their communications. Having an encrypted one diminishes the public’s oversight during a time of already diminished oversight.

Comparing the public’s right to privacy with a government agency’s desire to further escape accountability is a category error.

(More to the point: the precipitating factor for all of this was Eric Garner’s death at the hands of the NYPD; they would not have been held accountable had someone not noticed their chatter as he was being killed[1]. Timeliness of public access absolutely matters.)

[1]: https://gothamist.com/news/nypd-is-spending-390-million-on-a...

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Re:The N.Y.P.D. Is Upgrading Its Radios. The Public Won't Be... by gorkish on Monday November 27, 2023 @03:07PM (#38437502)
In my experience it seems there is not a lot of understanding, even among people who are technology oriented, that it is possible to do strong cryptographic authentication without encryption. Whether from oversight or purposeful omission, it's an option that very rarely surfaces in discussion.
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