Listening to Boston police radio transmissions over old-school scanner equipment will soon yield nothing but dead air.
The Boston Police Department said Wednesday that it will convert its analog radio system to a “digital encrypted” system on Saturday.
“This means that Boston Police radio transmissions will no longer be available via traditional analog radio scanning equipment,” the police department said in a social media post.
Officials said a publicly accessible Boston police radio feed will be made available online at radio.rapidsos.com/boston, but the feed listeners hear won’t be in real time. The department said the new radio system will be “delayed slightly to prioritize public and officers’ safety.”
“In most cases the delay will be approximately 5 minutes,” Mariellen Burns, a Boston police spokesperson, said in an email.
The department said the change will “update antiquated equipment” and give police better communication abilities, cut down on background noise and static, and prevent “bad actors” from monitoring and interfering with police activity.
“It will help ensure first responders are the first to arrive on what may be a dangerous scene and that perpetrators will not be alerted to officers’ activity,” the department‘s statement said.
The department did not return messages seeking further information about how the time delay will be operated and who made the decision to adopt the new radio system.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s office referred questions to police.
Burns said the online radio feed will allow for greater public access because no specialized equipment or scanner knowledge is needed, but some argued that the new system, along with the time delay, will impede the free flow of information to the public, particularly those who monitor police scanners regularly, such as news outlets.
Justin Silverman, director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, said he is concerned the change will limit access for journalists and the rest of the public to live information about incidents as they develop in real time.
“It’s concerning because the practice cuts off our access for real time information about police activity in our communities, and that makes it really difficult not only for journalists who do their jobs, but also for many members of the public who listen to these scanners regularly to get a better understanding of what’s going on in their neighborhoods and how police are responding,” Silverman said in an interview.
He said most police communications are mundane and don’t pose a safety risk to first responders. He said police departments already use multiple channels and could use an encrypted channels for sensitive information while keeping most communication public.
“Certainly no one wants to put first responders in harm’s way,” he said. “If there happens to be a situation where very sensitive communication needs to occur, then the department can have their officers move over to that encrypted station without just completely removing access to all of the scanner communication, cutting off that source of information for everybody.”
“Having a policy that doesn’t allow for most of that communication to be publicly accessible is ultimately going to cause more harm than good,” he said.
Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.