Honestly surprised they have been unencrypted as long as they have - I am an avid scanner listener (not in NY though), so if everyone gets encrypted it will affect my very part-time 'hobby', but on the other hand, some of the stuff I hear I can't figure out why it should have been public in the first place.
Other than being nosy (OK, I admit it), not sure it is really in the public interest to know what is going on in that much detail.
I can understand it not being IMMEDIATELY public. But unless someone explicitly asks to be excluded there is a very good reason for police actions to be public. We REALLY don't want to have a police force working in secret without a very good reason like undercover or witness protection.