OAKLAND, Calif. — The Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) issued a statement Wednesday condemning the Oakland Police Department’s decision to encrypt all radio communications, cutting off the public from real-time access to dispatch traffic.
The APTP, a Black-led, intergenerational coalition working to end police violence, said the move represents a major step back for transparency. The group said the OPD has justified the decision under the pretense of “officer safety,” but described it instead as an attack on public oversight in a city with a long record of police misconduct.
“We say this is about dodging accountability, plain and simple,” the statement read.
The group argued that encryption cuts off the media and residents from vital information and undermines the ability of the public to monitor police activity.
“Encryption of radio traffic silences one of the last remaining real-time tools that the public, press, and watchdogs have to fact-check police narratives, monitor police activity, and track emergencies as they unfold,” the statement said.
The OPD has publicly claimed a shortage of officers, but the APTP countered that mismanagement of time and resources, not staffing levels, has long been the real cause of slow response times.
The group pointed to the department’s decades-long federal oversight stemming from misconduct and corruption, including failures to document excessive use of force. The OPD remains under federal receivership because of negligence, the APTP said.
The group also emphasized the historical importance of radio traffic for alerting the community in real time to police shootings, particularly when Oakland faced a surge in fatal shootings of Black men by police.
By encrypting dispatch communications, the OPD is eroding trust and delivering a “slap in the face to the community,” the APTP said.
The group warned that encryption is especially dangerous in Oakland, where communities have endured generations of police brutality and broken trust around public safety. They argued the move represents the city retreating from transparency when it is most urgently needed.
“OPD does not get to hide behind a digital curtain while continuing to terrorize our communities,” the group said.
Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, said, “This is a department that has killed civilians, violated court mandates, manipulated evidence, and undermined civilian oversight. Now they want to do it in the dark.”
“This is not just a bad decision, it’s a dangerous precedent,” Brooks said. “If OPD can’t operate with public oversight, then they have no business operating at all.”
Critics noted that while other police departments have moved toward encryption, Oakland’s circumstances are unique.
“Oakland is not just another city. We are a city in a state of emergency with rising rents, underfunded social services, and a police department that consumes nearly half the budget,” the APTP said.
The coalition argued that Oakland’s problems demand more transparency, not less. They stressed that residents have consistently demanded stronger accountability, and losing one of the last tools for oversight “is like a blow to the chest.”
“The public deserves to know what the police are doing in our neighborhoods, and with our dollars,” the group said.
The APTP called on Mayor Barbara Lee, members of the Oakland City Council, and the federal monitor overseeing the OPD to immediately reverse the decision.
As debates over police radio encryption spread to other cities, Oakland’s case highlights the conflict between public demands for transparency and law enforcement’s claims of safety concerns. Advocates like the APTP insist that true safety requires accountability, community oversight, and open access to information.
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