Honolulu City Council Chairman Tommy Waters introduced a resolution today urging the city administration to restore public access to police, fire and emergency services radio traffic.

“I introduced this resolution to promote accountability and transparency,” Waters told the Star-Advertiser in a statement. “An informed press is a strong press, and an informed community is a strong community.”

The public and media organizations lost the ability to monitor the radio communications of the taxpayer-funded first responders on Feb. 15 when the final phase of a $15 million conversion from an analog system to a P25 Motorola digital system wrapped up.

“[H]istorically, such dispatch radio communications were on open and unencrypted channels that could be accessed by the media and the public,” the resolution reads, in part. “[T]he media have relied on their ability to monitor radio communications to disseminate emergency-related information to the general public, and a segment of the public has monitored dispatch radio communications as a means of keeping abreast of events occurring within the community.”

The decision to upgrade the communication system and encrypt real-time radio traffic was made during former Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration.

Mayor Rick Blangiardi previously expressed interest in a contractual agreement with media outlets that would restore access to the communications. The city’s corporation counsel is reviewing a 2018 agreement between the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Las Vegas media outlets, and other policies at Blangiardi’s request.

Prior to his election, Blangiardi spent 43 years in the television news industry.

The 2018 agreement allowed news agencies to pay for their own Motorola P25 radios, which cost as much as $10,000 each. Media organizations agreed not to alter the equipment or use them in any way other than to monitor the channels approved and programmed by LVMPD.

In addition to Waters , Council members Augie Tulba and Carol Fukunaga have said they support public access to P25 radio traffic.

City Council resolution on … by Honolulu Star-Advertiser