As many of our readers and listeners already know, the Scotts Bluff County Scanner has been broadcasting over the internet since 2009 and has gone through lots of changes over the years.

Scanner enthusiasts, and law enforcement officials both know that eventually the publicly available scanner signal could, and likely will, go encrypted. This means that the general public would simply not be able to get the signal. Only official media outlets will have access to it and they are not allowed to re-transmit it during the live event. There are varying laws as to how much they can use from an archived event in their reporting after the fact.

So, someday you will not be able to listen to the Scotts Bluff County Scanner.

HOWEVER, that day is not here yet and has not been voted on at the County level.

– per scotts bluff county commissioners

The expense to change to all encrypted is enormous, and Scotts Bluff County ALREADY has ENCRYPTED channels installed for both SWAT and WING. The police officers also use their cell phones on many occasions when they don’t want something broadcast over the scanner. IF the County would decide to move forward on a proposal of this nature, we predict there would be a large uprising against this huge, seemingly unnecessary expenditure, especially if we already employ encryption and other secure communications techniques.

That’s GOOD NEWS for those who follow the scanner for various reasons. Many of us believe it should remain classified as public information and encryption should only happen when the officers deem it necessary. We trust their judgement on that call, but the public information should remain public, inasmuch as it does not AID a criminal in the COMMISSION of a CRIME.

It should also go without saying too many times, “PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM ANY SCENE WHENEVER POSSIBLE” and “PLEASE YIELD TO ALL EMERGENCY PERSONNEL”.

Although the “Scotts Bluff County Scanner” volunteer group is NOT associated with the county or any government agency, we have always had a good working relationship with the county. We have informed them of our full cooperation on the reporting of individuals that are found to be obstructing the scene of any crime, accident or otherwise.

If anyone is cited for obstruction, or any other charge related to getting in the way of our dedicated officers, firemen and volunteers, they will earn for themselves a lifetime ban from our facebook page, twitter feed, instagram feed, website and all other @sbcoscanner properties.

Now, we titled this article a new era because we have alot going on behind the scenes for you. In case you missed it, we do have a small but growing scanner gear merchandise store where you can purchase T-shirts, Coffee Mugs and Totes. We’ll be adding Hats, Hoodies, Tumblers and other cool items in the near future.

We are also working hard on a business plan to increase our team and improve our service to the community. For instance, not only do we have a full website for the scanner, but it includes a SPONSORS section that will soon be filling up. That means YOUR BUSINESS could advertise on this fastest growing news service in the valley – The Scotts Bluff County Scanner!

If you would like to volunteer to contribute local news to us, please let us know by sending an email through our parent company to Brian Hale, Business Manager at brian@halemultimedia.com directly.

Look for more improvements and changes and thank you for following, sharing and listening to the Scotts Bluff County Scanner!