Police radio
"The receiving device for the wireless transmission of important messages [...]"
With police radio , is mainly colloquially, a frequency or a frequency range referred to, the exclusively by police is used organs. The official name is the non-public mobile VHF land radio service of the police . The police radio is a command and control tool (FEM).
history
In the 1930s were u. a. In New York , London and Spain police vehicles are equipped with radiotelephony to enable a constant connection with the headquarters. In addition, it was planned to use encrypted Morse code telegrams for the cross-border exchange of information .
technology
In Germany , the BOS radio (radio of the authorities and organizations with security tasks) is used. Typically, most of the radio traffic takes place over the 4 meter band . Radio communication groups are set up for this, e.g. B. for a regional police headquarters , a section or for large-scale operations. The 4-meter band is also the main radio communication circuit for communication with the control center . The range of the 4 meter tape is much greater than that of the 2 meter tape , which is used for shorter distances, e.g. B. for the messaging paths between two strips , or between patrol and service. All radio communication with the control center is recorded.
In many metropolitan areas there is a radio reporting system in the 4-meter band. In special cases, voice encryption of radio traffic (crypto) is carried out, whereby both the sender and the receiver must be equipped with special encryption and decryption techniques. The individual code used must be known to the recipient.
The North Rhine-Westphalia police have been running a pilot test with the TETRA system in Aachen since 2004 . 190 million euros have been spent on this pilot project alone. Furthermore, there has been a pilot project for digital radio at the Bavarian police since 2010.
After the initial differences between the federal states and the federal government about the financing of the investments amounting to around 7.25 billion euros (divided between the federal and state governments) were settled and laid down in a federal-state agreement, the establishment of one began in 2009 digital authority radio system called BOSNet . Comprehensive coverage was not expected before 2013 [status?] . Since the end of February 2016, with the beginning of end-to-end encryption of digital radio in the Berlin police, the police’s digital radio has been fully encrypted.
The Federal Government has created the Federal Agency for Digital Radio for the authorities and organizations with security tasks based in Berlin.
Problems
Even if it is forbidden by law, the police radio can technically be overheard by unauthorized persons. The police are therefore sometimes switching to work cell phones; sensitive missions are not communicated by radio at all. With the new digital radio of the authorities and organizations with security tasks, eavesdropping is no longer possible due to the end-to-end encryption .
In 2009 there was a small radio in a Mickey Mouse magazine as a supplement with which one could listen to the police radio. According to the publisher of the magazine, Egmont Ehapa Verlag, the frequencies are limited to radio frequencies. Nevertheless, wiretapping was possible in several large cities.
With the introduction of DAB + in 2011, there was frequency interference, which affected TETRA radio. Because of this, the Federal Network Agency ordered the temporary shutdown of the local DAB + transmitter during a large demonstration in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Legal position
In accordance with Section 89 of the Telecommunications Act , unauthorized persons are prohibited from listening in on the police radio (see judgments ). Anyone who unintentionally receives a non-public radio service in Germany may not disclose the content and the fact of the reception to others. A violation is punished with imprisonment of up to two years or a fine according to § 148 TKG .
BOS frequency tables may only be used to avoid these frequencies.
There are different judgments about programming police radio frequencies.
Judgments
There are several judgments that deal with listening to the police radio in Germany:
- Burgdorf scanner judgment 1997 (AZ: 4 DS / 16 Js 7932/97): The Burgdorf district court acquitted a journalist who had eavesdropped on the police radio with a recipient. The judges ruled that the manufacturers must ensure that their devices can only receive messages that are also allowed for these devices. This legalized the interception of official radio using commercially available devices, but the judgment was not a fundamental decision . Several courts have now decided differently and revised the judgment.
- Wuppertal scanner judgment 1998 : A radio amateur, in whose radio scanner frequencies were programmed that cannot be intercepted, was acquitted. The district court of Wuppertal justified that the acquittal was due to factual reasons, as it could not be proven that the radio amateur had tapped the police radio on a specific day. In 2000, the Cologne Regional Court closed a similar case (AZ: 155-140 / 00). The district court in Düsseldorf ruled differently in 2003, in this case the radio scanner with stored police radio frequencies was found in a journalist's car.
- Judgment of the Bavarian Supreme Regional Court 1999 (AZ: 4St RR 7/99): In 1997 a CB radio operator was found to have received police radio frequencies, and the district court and regional court sentenced him. In the third instance, § 89 TKG was checked for its constitutionality, the judges confirmed the constitutionality and the previous judgment. The Burgdorf decision was thus refuted, the judgment is still the most important legal decision in relation to § 89 TKG. From the wording:
“For the interpretation of the term 'interception', this means that it is fulfilled when a transmitter is tuned in, although the recipient knows that messages are being transmitted on this frequency that are not intended for him personally, the general public or an indefinite group of people are. The mere search, which leads to the finding of a station not intended for the general public, is initially unintentional reception within the meaning of § 86 sentence 2 TKG. Only the further listening after recognizing this characteristic constitutes punishable eavesdropping, in particular if it occurs due to the fixation of the transmitter on the receiving device. "
Other countries
In the United States it is generally allowed to intercept unencrypted radio frequencies. For this reason, US police radio audio streams exist on the Internet . Some police stations also operate public trunked radio .
literature
- Christof Linde: Structure and technology of the digital BOS radio , Franzis Verlag, 2008, ISBN 3-7723-4216-7 .
See also
Web links
- BOS channels sorted by location
- Die Welt - "Digital police radio too expensive"
- Heise - Digital government radio will be more expensive than planned
Individual evidence
- ↑ The wireless wave catches criminals. In: Funkschau 1936, No. 2 (January 12, 1936).
- ↑ Stefan Schubert : Inside Police: The unknown side of everyday police life . 2nd Edition. riva Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-86883-191-7 , p. 168 ff .
- ↑ Digital police radio leaves crooks no chance. In: The world . dpa report, December 19, 2012, accessed on May 3, 2013 .
- ↑ When the Mickey Mouse radio receives police radio. In: The world . ddp message, March 19, 2009, accessed May 3, 2013 .
- ↑ Ernst Ahlers: Digital radio interferes with police radio. c't , 2011, accessed May 3, 2013 .
- ↑ Listening to the police radio - the legal situation in detail. Funkwelle.com, November 29, 2012, accessed May 3, 2013 .
- ↑ Burgdorfer scanner judgment. In: hurcks.de. Radio scanner, accessed May 3, 2013 .
- ↑ Listening to police radio: Receiving frequencies with the app, radio and online - is it allowed? Retrieved September 30, 2016 .
- ↑ Wolfgang Fricke: Wording of the "Wuppertal scanner judgment". FM - Das Funkmagazin, accessed on May 3, 2013 .
- ^ Wolfgang Fricke: "Scanner process": procedure in the second instance discontinued. FM - Das Funkmagazin, accessed on May 3, 2013 .
- ↑ Wolfgang Fricke: Higher Regional Court: wiretapping paragraph not unconstitutional. FM - Das Funkmagazin, accessed on May 3, 2013 .
- ↑ See section United States in the English Wikipedia article
