July 20, 2026 NEW YORK, NY A high-stakes battle over transparency, public safety, and a billion dollars in taxpayer-funded technology is boiling over in New York City. Media advocates, lawyers, and lawmakers are sounding the alarm, accusing the NYPD of a blatant and intentional attempt to bypass a newly minted city law designed to keep police communications open to the press.
At the center of the storm is Local Law 46, a measure passed to force the NYPD to grant credentialed journalists "real-time" access to encrypted precinct, highway, and special operations radio frequencies. Instead, the NYPD’s newly released policy proposal does the exact opposite, threatening to delay broadcasts and leaving the press completely in the dark when emergencies unfold.
The Deliberate Delay: A Direct Violation of the Law?
Local Law 46 officially went into effect in January after Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined to sign or veto it, letting it pass automatically. The law explicitly mandates "real-time" access to encrypted channels that don't carry sensitive or private data.
Yet, the NYPD’s official draft proposal reads:
"The NYPD will establish a platform to provide credentialed professional journalists with access to encrypted channels that do not regularly broadcast sensitive information. The feeds will be broadcast at a delay."
While the department didn’t specify the exact length of the delay in their text, past statements from police officials point to a 15-to-30-minute lag.
For journalists, a 30-minute delay is an eternity. It means photojournalists and reporters cannot respond to breaking news—such as fires, active shooters, or major accidents—as events unfold. Currently, official police email notifications about crimes can lag by four to six hours, or sometimes never arrive at all, making radio access the lifeblood of independent public safety reporting.
"Intentionally Vague to Stall for Time"
Manhattan City Council Member Gale Brewer, who sponsored Local Law 46, didn’t hold back her fury over the department's response.
"I’m guaranteeing you that we will deal with this and contact them on Monday and tell them that this is not an appropriate response," Brewer said, noting that the NYPD appears nervous about who gets access. She pointed out that the department failed to provide a user agreement or a functional application process for anyone to evaluate. "We worked hard on this so people... can apply, and get access with no encryption, and no delay... They are not following the law."
The New York Media Consortium, an umbrella group representing 14 press organizations with a 70-year history of monitoring police radios, blasted the department's proposal.
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Bruce Cotler, President of the New York Press Photographers Association, called out the tactical stalling: "The policy statement is in violation of the spirit of the law... There are just too many questions here and it seems intentional to stall for time."
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Robert Roth, a media lawyer and lead witness for Local Law 46, expressed deep dismay: "The NYPD has intentionally used vague terms like ‘application packet’ and ‘acceptable use policy’ that will mean whatever they want."
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Diane Kennedy, President of the New York News Publishers Association, warned of the consequences to the public: "A loss of minutes in documenting an event may inhibit the ability of the press to tell a complete story."
A Billion-Dollar Blackout
Since 2019, the NYPD has quietly funneled more than a billion dollars into new radio equipment, repeaters, and thousands of manpower hours to implement a sweeping encryption system.
The department has defended the costly blackout by arguing that criminals and agitators used unencrypted radios to evade officers, disrupt communications, and coordinate illegal activities, most notably during the 2020 George Floyd protests. However, by shutting out the criminal element, the NYPD effectively severed a 70-year-old pipeline of transparency to the press.
