BERKELEY — Police scanners in Berkeley will officially be encrypted starting Thursday morning, officials said Wednesday.

Scanner encryption, the process of shifting officers and dispatch communication to a private channel, will align the city’s police department with other law enforcement offices in the East Bay that began encrypting their feeds in October.

Berkeley’s decision to fully encrypt has been influenced by multiple factors.

A 2020 memo by former Attorney General Xavier Becerra called on agencies to protect peoples’ sensitive identifiable information like their names, addresses, birthdates and social security numbers from scanner traffic that was available to the public.

That directive allowed agencies to keep feeds open while securely sharing sensitive information through oth

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