Is My City Encrypted
A Binary Rogue public-interest project tracking where U.S. public-safety radio is going dark — so anyone can check whether their city's police, fire, and EMS can still be heard.
Why this exists
For decades, anyone with a scanner could hear their local police, fire, and EMS coordinate in real time. That openness is how reporters, researchers, and neighbors have kept watch on how public agencies act in a crisis.
As departments move to fully encrypted digital radio, that signal goes dark — often with no public notice and no policy for who, if anyone, keeps access. Is My City Encrypted documents where that has already happened, scores it consistently, and links every classification back to its source so the record can be checked.
We don't editorialize the decision to encrypt. We make it visible — county by county, system by system — so the public conversation can happen with facts instead of guesswork.
From source record to grade
- SOURCE
Channel and talkgroup records are pulled from RadioReference.com, the largest public registry of radio-system data in the United States.
- CLASSIFY
Every public-safety voice resource is graded encrypted, partial, or clear. National and area figures are weighted by individual voice channels — conventional and trunked — not a flat count of agencies.
- VERIFY
Each record links back to its source, so any classification on the site can be independently checked against the underlying data.
What we hold to
Transparency by default
Open data, an open method, and a source link on every record. Nothing here is a black box.
Aggregate, not surveillance
We track radio systems and agencies — never individuals, never live audio. This is infrastructure data, not a scanner feed.
Numbers, not alarm
Encrypted means a channel can't be monitored from the public record — nothing more. We report it plainly and let the figures speak.
Get in touch
Is My City Encrypted is built and maintained by milk at Binary Rogue. Questions, corrections, and press inquiries are welcome.
Data sourced from RadioReference.com. Derived classifications by ismycityencrypted.com. No affiliation or endorsement implied.