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Light Rain Lynbrook Police Department's radio conversations no longer publicly transmitted
In an effort to join a movement to provide safer and stronger communication between all police departments across Nassau County, the Lynbrook Police Department switched its radios over to a countywide system, which is encrypted to ensure that other people cannot hear their communications.
Lynbrook Police Chief Joseph Neve said that there were many reasons for making the switch, which happened about a month ago. Those reasons include the cheaper cost, the safety that comes with the encryptions and the strong range of the radios. “Our old system was becoming antiquated,” he said.
Under the new system, each police vehicle has a portable and mobile radio. The new system is also microwave, eliminating the reliance on copper lines, which need to be regularly maintained.
Most police units throughout the county are operating under the system, and each village has its own talk group. Neve said if the Lynbrook police need to communicate with a nearby precinct, they simply have to switch to the other village’s frequency. They can also interact with the Nassau County Police Department. On the old system, the officers had to switch to a countywide frequency, which he noted was not always monitored.
The new radios will also make it easier to broadcast information involving missing persons to multiple departments at once.
Though blocking out communications might affect other emergency entities like fire departments and medical personnel from hearing and responding to any incidents that are broadcasted over the police radios, Neve said it would not be a problem.
“It’s not at all a concern,” he said. “If there’s something that they would be involved with, they get dispatched anyway.”
Neve added that safety is paramount when it comes to police response. “In today’s world where police officers are being shot and assaulted and ambushed, the encrypted radio prohibits people from knowing where police are responding to,” he said.
