The Fairfax County Police Department is moving forward with plans to partially seal off its radio communications from the public. The department has proposed encrypting its “main channels” to both limit the disclosure of sensitive information and prevent “someone’s worst day from being used for entertainment,” officers told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors at a Safety and Security Committee meeting this afternoon (Tuesday). “There’s a confluence of factors that have come together that mandates that we act now to protect our community,” FCPD Maj. Brendan Hooke told the committee. … “It’s unacceptable to send this information in any other format, in unencrypted means,” Hooke said. “If I were a criminal and I wanted to target individuals in Fairfax County for identity theft, fraud or scams, harassment, bullying, I could just listen to the radio and harvest that information all day, every day.” Hooke also cited the growing possibility of sensitive details becoming widely available on the internet as a reason to encrypt, saying that incident information is often redistributed on social media “for clicks.” … “This data would fall under a number of regulations, including HIPAA, FERPA … at some point, our hand would be forced, potentially,” Hooke said, referring to privacy laws that protect health and student information, respectively. “We’d rather be proactive and follow what the rest of the region is doing.”
(Note: Law enforcement departments are not subject to HIPAA or FERPA)

The Roanoke Police Department overspent a $300,000 state gun violence prevention grant by close to $100,000, an audit found, putting the city on the hook to pay the difference during tight budget times. Beyond the overspending, the probe found a lack of oversight put teens in the care of mentors with no evidence of proper background checks, staff followed improper procurement, and a new city computer software system didn’t work. A few youth participants worked at a mentor’s business and, because the work benefitted the business, it was an obvious conflict of interest, according to the audit. … The audit was started after concerned finance department staff contacted the municipal auditor’s office at the direction of City Manager Valmarie Turner.

The long-simmering relationship between Warrenton Mayor Carter Nevill and Town Councilman Eric Gagnon has erupted with a resolution prepared by the councilman accusing the mayor of conflicts of interest and calling for his recusal from any public business regarding the Amazon data center and the council’s Commission on Transparency. Gagnon, a member of the commission investigating whether the town followed proper procedures in approving the data center, last week sent the resolution to councilmembers, the town attorney and the mayor, saying he would move for it to be brought up in a public session at Tuesday’s council meeting. … The mayor’s response: “This is bulls***,” he told FauquierNow. And in an email to Gagnon, the mayor chided, “The United States Constitution and VCOI (Virginia Conflict of Interest) Act would like a word with you.”