As of Tuesday members of the public in regional Victoria, including Ballarat, are no longer able to listen in to police activity through police scanners apps.

Superintendent Mick Glowaski believes the change will provide greater audio quality, improved portable coverage, duress for country members and location/GPS functionality.

“Police operating in regional Victoria will now have the same secure communications as the Metropolitan Mobile Radio (MMR) network and is a great achievement for Victoria Police,” he said.

Superintendent Glowaski addressed the issue of members of the public being able to listen and sometimes interact with police over police scanner apps.

“For a long time now we’ve been aware that people can access regional police communications with as little as an ‘app’ on their phone,” he said.

“Encrypted communications will ensure this no longer occurs and will see a more reliable, secure and updated radio system for our officers to serve them well into the future.”

In August 2017 Victoria's regional police radio system were exposed when a hacker interrupted the frequency during a car chase.

Impersonating an officer, the hacker interfered during a pursuit sparked by an alleged attempted armed robbery of a shop in Sale.

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