Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

Journalist Todd Maisel spent 40 years listening to police scanners, letting the scratchy radio sounds guide him to some of the biggest news stories in New York City. He’s sounding the alarm now over the NYPD’s plan to encrypt these radios — turning them off for everyone who isn’t in the police in a move that he’s warned for years was coming. “Do we trust he police to tell the truth? I don’t,” he told FAQ. Silent radios “is bad for the public, it’s bad for checks and balances, it is a real problem,” he said.

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