Police now use scramblers
PA Wellington The police are now using radio scramblers to transmit sensitive and confidential information in big investigations. Deputy- Assistant Commissioner Brian Davies said that the police now had scramblers for trial and evaluation.
Mr Davies would not say how many scramblers the police had but they were being used in Wellington for sensitive crime investigations, mainly linked with drug dealing. The introduction of scramblers using a UHF channel will make it more difficult and expensive for people to eavesdrop on police work. Descramblers are available in the United States, however.
Companies in the United States offer a service where a person can send them a scrambled message which a machine will descramble.
The descrambling macnine is capable of recognising different scrambling processes and automatically switches to descrambling the system being used. The machines sell from SUS2OO ($300). Mr Davies said the police would be looking at buying more scramblers depending on the evaluation of the ones now in use.
Scramblers would be used for only a small percentage of police radio messages and would be fitted to only a few cars. The cost of using scramblers for all Solice cars would be too igh.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840307.2.138
Bibliographic details
Press, 7 March 1984, Page 29
Word Count
199Police now use scramblers Press, 7 March 1984, Page 29
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.