Emergency response communication upgrades limits public access to information

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Sioux Falls and Rapid City police departments, as well as Minnehaha and Pennington county sheriff’s offices announced an upgrade to their emergency radio systems.

The upgrade will allow more unified emergency response communication across the state. Along with this upgrade, the agencies have the opportunity to make additional changes, including changes that will increase the safety for law enforcement and privacy of victims and witnesses. This means the public will have less access to emergency traffic they traditional listen to via scanners.

“I spoke with our warrants division commander yesterday, and he reiterated that our warrant task force, who is out there tracking down the most violent offenders in our community, routinely has to adjust the radio traffic, and not share critical safety information because they know those that they are tracking down are listening,” said Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller.

While the upgrade will result in better encrypted radio communication among officers, the two departments have also stated they will continue to be transparent with the community through their websites and social media pages.

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