Assuming by Scramble you mean Encryption, that would mean that every beat cop carries a radio that by itself costs over 75% of that officer's yearly salary. That seems extremely questionable.

~J

You are correct that the radio cost more then I thought, teach me to not consult my notes.

However, Cops live or die by their communications, so it would not be a crap radio.

lets call it Transceiver Rating 3 (Flux-3), ECCM-1 (std), Encryption-2.

That would cost 1,500 + 2,000 = 3,500

This would not be a piece of gear that the Cop would have to purchase, it would be provided to them.

Now, enter 2070 and Commlinks and this all gets a lot cheaper and a whole lot more advanced.

I'm not all that sure LS would even have encryption on their radios. It's not like they have it now, and I don't think the reasons they don't today will go away in 60 years either.

As for smartlinks, I still think that LS would be giving all their cops access to some sort of indentured slavery-like installment plan and "encouraging" them to use it, to the tune that not doing so would mean never making detective. AAA-rated corps can afford to ignore the rules, but guys like LS that rely on government contracts still have to be slaves to public opinion polls, and such a program would be a huge boost to the corp's public face. Heck, such a program might even be sponsored by the state itself, in the form of tax incentives for cops who willingly go under the knife; if there's one thing bureaucrats love it's to get their name on a program that wastesspends taxpayer money in silly attempts to make them safer, and even more shockingly this one might even actually work.