Following the debacle involving communication problems with firefighter’s radios during last month’s Metro smoke incident, Mayor Muriel Bowser has banned radio encryption for first responders.

In a statement, City Administrator Rashad Young said that “after a thorough review that begain in December, Mayor Bowser has decided that it is in the best interest of the District and its residents to change encryption protocols for D.C. FEMS first responders.”

After the Navy Yard shooting in 2013, the D.C. FEMS followed suit with the Metropolitan Police Department’s 2011 decision to encrypt its radio scanners.”Real-time access to tactical information by a perpetrator could result in an even more danger for emergency responders and the public,” then-Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Paul Quander said.

In the investigation of last month’s Metro smoke incident, there’s been a lot of chatter if the D.C. FEMS’s encrypted radios were to blame for the poor radio signals with first responders. Since then, there’s been a lot of finger-pointing between Metro and D.C. FEMS over the state of radio encryption and signal problems in Metro tunnels

But officials are adamant that Bowser’s decision has nothing to do with the incident, the Post reports:

“It has nothing to do with the Metro incident,” said one of the two officials. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be seen as preempting Bowser’s announcement. The impending announcement was first reported by WRC (Channel 4).

“The timing of the announcement has in fact been complicated because we don’t want to suggest in any way that it is connected to the outstanding allegation that [encryption and the Metro incident] are connected,” the official said.

Beginning in March, D.C. FEMS will begin using unencrypted channels for all standard operation, but keep encryption available for certain events that may call for it.

“These new protocols will ensure that D.C. FEMS can seamlessly communicate with their counterpart agencies from other jurisdictions,” Young said, “while embracing encryption technology that will ensure the safety and security of residents and visitors during incidents deemed sensitive.”