Minneapolis launches emergency incidents dashboard ahead of scanner encryption

The city of Minneapolis announced the launch a new emergency incidents dashboard on Monday, ahead of the full encryption of its main emergency-response channels in just a couple of weeks.

City officials say the reason for the encryption is to comply with state data privacy regulations and “providing additional safety and privacy for both first responders and residents.”

“The dramatic rise in the use of social media and scanner apps to track first responders jeopardizes emergency response operations and can lead to the spread of incomplete, inaccurate, or unsubstantiated information,” the city added in a statement. “This can cause safety concerns for first responders and the public. Directives from the state and federal governments have long required agencies to protect personally identifiable information such as driver’s license numbers and criminal backgrounds. Encrypting communication helps ensure City compliance while providing additional safety for emergency responders and community members.”

Periodic encryption will begin Monday night and go through testing until April 30. All communication will be encrypted beginning May 1.

The dashboard can be found here and will be updated every 30 minutes. It will show 911 calls over the last 12 hours, have a mapped location of incidents and categorize them based on when and where the incident occurred and who responded.

Older incidents can be found on a separate dashboard.