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Ira Paul — posing with one of his three scanners, the Uniden SDS 100 — has been listening to local police scanners since 1969. The Southfield police channel has become encrypted, while the Southfield fire channel is still monitorable.
Photo provided by Ira Paul
SOUTHFIELD — Ira Paul has been an avid listener of local police radio channels since 1969.
“I hate to tell you what year it was,” Paul joked. “Today, you can program the radio or scanner. You just have to punch in the radio frequencies on a keyboard, which is on the radio. Back then, you had to buy what is called a crystal and plug it into the back of the radio and then tune it to the police frequency. And those crystals were like $5 or $6 apiece. And we’re talking the early ‘70s. For that, today would be the equivalent of like $15 or $20. But that’s what you had to do back then. You had to buy a crystal for each police department that you wanted to listen to. If your police scanner picked up eight channels, which was the norm back then, you’d have to buy eight crystals.”
Though technology has made it easier to tune into police channels through apps on a smartphone, Paul prefers actual scanners. He has three: a Uniden BCD436HP, a Uniden SDS100 and a Uniden SDS200.
“One plugs into the wall. I have one that I listen to in my bedroom, a handheld. I have one that has a full-color screen, and it picks up, like, fantastic. And I bring it to places with me because it picks up so well.”
Even though Paul no longer has to plug crystals into his radios, another obstacle has arisen in recent years: encryption.
Paul was always fascinated with law enforcement, which led him to pick up his first scanner in middle school. As an Oak Park resident, Paul tuned in to Oak Park, Royal Oak, Berkley, Huntington Woods, Ferndale and Southfield’s channels.
However, with the rise of encrypted police channels, Southfield has become the latest channel in Oakland County’s radio system — Oakland County Simulcast, a subsystem of the Michigan Public Safety Communications System — to move to a new P25 standard radio system. Most of Michigan’s police and fire channels are on MPSCS. The State Police, Detroit and Macomb County are on the system, but remain unencrypted.
“P25 radios are a direct replacement for analog UHF, typically FM radios, but add the ability to transfer data as well as voice, allowing for more natural implementations of encryption and text messaging,” Southfield Deputy Chief Aaron Huguley said. “P25-compliant systems allow for a high degree of equipment interoperability and compatibility. The encryption of the system is necessary due to the large amounts of sensitive information that is broadcast to first responders.”
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard echoed Huguley’s concern surrounding the sensitive information shared over the scanners. Bouchard explained that when studying major crimes across the world, one of the things that stood out to him was that criminals monitor police communications.
“Obviously, that’s unacceptable for us,” he said. “If we’re talking tactics, let’s say it’s a barricaded gunman situation with the hostage. We certainly don’t want them to be able to listen in on what our plans are.”
Bouchard explained that the channel shift has been in the works for the past three years, and about half of Oakland County’s substations are on the new system and half are on the old.
“We’re in the rollout phase now. The intention is to get everyone over to the new, because, with our old communication systems, we were literally buying repair parts off of eBay, so this is long overdue. That’s in terms of capability and communication.”
For hobbyists like Paul, this change is disappointing.
“I’m very frustrated with it. I feel that the public has a right to listen. If you’re fearful of the police officers’ safety because a criminal could listen, then they should delay the radio traffic by 20-25 minutes. That way, when the public gets the information, the police would’ve already been at the scene of the crime 25 minutes by the time the public hears it.”
Paul obtained an associate degree in law enforcement from Oakland Community College and almost pursued a career as a police officer, but instead took a job at General Motors, but his interest in criminal justice never dwindled.
On nice days, Paul can be found on his porch listening to the scanner. Each day, it differs, but he explained that he’ll sometimes listen for a half hour in the morning and then again in the late afternoon or evening, sometimes up to two hours. He said it gives him peace of mind to tune into the police channels.
“I wanna know what’s going on around me. If they’re looking for somebody, I get excited when I hear that he’s in custody.”
Paul is not alone in his hobby. RadioReference.com has forums all over the United States for listeners. There’s a Michigan forum with subsections for communities like Oakland County and Detroit listeners to chat about what they heard on the scanner. There is also a Facebook page called Oakland County Scanner Chat, where Oakland County residents can spread awareness about criminal activity in lieu of police scanners.
