The Crossville City Council discussed this afternoon in a work session the emergency radio encryption.

Presently the radio system Cumberland County uses can’t be heard on any commercial scanners or any scanner applications.

Councilman Art Gernt brought up the topic to open a dialog and see where it goes.

The issue is the media and the public not being able to hear if an emergency is going on.

City Manager Greg Wood said an assistant could be hired in the future to address the media on situations.

“We want to ensure the public is informed on what is going on,” said Wood.

Councilman Rob Harrison said the city has a long history with the established media in Cumberland County.

The city attorney recommended looking at what other counties in the area who are encrypted are doing to work with the media to pass on information as quickly as possible while protecting the first responders.

The only ways the public can learn of an emergency in Cumberland County is either by listening to radio news, reading about it on recognized local social media sites, signing up for the Cumberland County EMA notification application, or receiving text messages from the county by way of Hyper-Reach.

The council will address the issue in a further meeting.

It will not appear on the regular meeting agenda for Tuesday, November 14, 2023.