Don’t deny city residents the right to listen to the police scanner

Earlier this month, the Baltimore Police Department announced it is working to encrypt the police scanner, no doubt in response to the popular Twitter account @scanthepolice that has been live-tweeting the police scanner as they are able (“Baltimore Police moving to encrypt scanner transmissions, keeping public from hearing calls,” Sept. 1). In the past two weeks, two incidents have demonstrated to me and many others why this is a terrible idea and that in a free nation allowing the people to be a check on power is important.

Last week, there was an active shooter driving around Druid Hill Park in the afternoon. I and many other parents were outside with our kids playing in the park a few blocks away, yet the only way we knew was because of @scanthepolice — no officers stopped to talk to us and no warnings came from Foxtrot either. Access to the scanner saves lives.

This week, a tweet from a doctor in Texas went viral when he said his daughter and boyfriend were attacked by “BLM” and that the Baltimore Police couldn’t do anything because the suspects were African American. When initially asked, city police officials said they had no record of the incident in question. It wasn’t until @scanthepolice went through their tweets to get the real story and then another Twitter user shared audio from the 911 calls that the Baltimore Police Department “found” the video debunking the doctor’s story.

Baltimore has many problems, but its greatest strength is a population that loves and stands up for this city every day and in every way. By taking the scanner away from them and leaving it to officials and institutions that are run from outside of the city, we hurt everyone. Keep the scanner public. Save lives. Save Baltimore.