Police scanner?

Justice

My father is basically a crazy, weird old man. He likes to sit around and listen to radio signals. He used to sit around and listen to a police scanner (radio thing to let you listen to local police radio). He wants another one but there's apparently (according to my mother's understanding) some complication about "now they're digital and encoded" or something.

I thought maybe I'd buy him one for his birthday. He just sits around and watches Dr. Phil or Fox News anyway, so wth why not. But I looked at Amazon and I have zero clue what any of the specs mean. Anyone know what I need to get him so he can sit his wretched old ass around and listen to the local police like he apparently wants to? There's a huge price range and I do not know anything about these.

knitdan

It sounds like the local law enforcement now has encrypted or scrambled their communications, in which case there is no legal way to listen in on them.

I'm assuming you are in the USA

From Wikipedia:

In the United States, the general guidelines[clarification needed] to follow when using a radio scanner are that it is illegal to:[citation needed]

listen in on cellular and cordless phone calls

intercept encrypted or scrambled communications

sell or import radio scanners that are capable of receiving cellular phone frequencies (this rule does not apply to sales by individuals[citation needed] and radio scanners made before the ban)

modify radio scanners so that cellular phone frequencies can be received

use information received for personal gain (a common example is where a taxi driver listens to a competitor's dispatch channel to steal a customer)

use information received to aid in the commission or execution of a crime

disclose information received to other persons

ceres

I don't know anything about police scanners but for whatever reason the tone of your post made me smile.

bowen

Yeah they're likely to be encrypted nowadays. That said, call his local police department and explain it, they may point you to specs they use so your dad can be a busybody. They may ask for your ID before they give out information, though.

143999

What county or parish or whatever are we talking about?

Justice

Madison heights (city), Oakland County, Michigan. Thanks for the responses. Maybe just won't work...

grendle

Some police departments, surprisingly, put a live feed on the internet.

143999

We used sites like Broadcastify in journalism classes to monitor police, fire, EMS, etc. scanners for leads on local breaking stories. Their listing for Oakland County, MI is here.

Per the Michigan State Police, police scanners are allowed in Michigan except for when used by certain felons and if used in the commission of a crime.

Karrmer

The digital thing is likely referring to the fact that modern police radio systems have switched from an analog to digital format, making it a lot harder to "listen in." You need some pretty specific equipment, but honestly I don't know if anything is better for this than a PC. It seems very easy to listen in on almost any station with a PC.

Drakeon

Does he have access to a smartphone? Scanner Radio is an app that you can use to listen in on police radios. I know the local ones by me in California aren't encrypted, might be worth checking out.

Darkewolfe

You might seriously just call your local newspaper and ask them how they do it in your area. I guarantee if it's legal and possible, they've just got the police scanner/equivalent running in the newsroom at all times.

Karrmer

Generally the only truly encrypted channels are SWAT/Detective things that even us dispatchers have no access to. Otherwise it isn't encrypted because it'd be too complex/impossible to allow for communication with other local, state, and federal agencies.

Justice

Yeah I think Karrmer might've got it. We had one of our rare, existentially saddening conversations and I learned he did want a particular--digital--model. A very expensive ($410) model. I think the version I got through my mother about encryption was just him not wanting to tell her it cost too much. Anyway. I can afford that no problem. So I amazoned it along with a USB cable and some software. He's got a homemade ass ugly giant antenna on the house already. With luck he'll be deep in his hobby soon. Thanks for all the responses.

Sharp10r

Mind if I ask what model?

Justice

Uniden BCD396XT.

CangoFett

knitdan wrote: »

It sounds like the local law enforcement now has encrypted or scrambled their communications, in which case there is no legal way to listen in on them.

Cop here - you're confusing digital and encrypted. Most police radio systems have gone to a digital trunking system. Basically every transmission is like a cell phone call. The talk group may be the same, but the channel / (frequency?) it is on changes. Unless you are set up for their system you aren't going to hear anything. Basically an old school scanner won't work, you need new fangled expensive trunking ones.

Encrypted radios are generally reserved for swat teams/surveillance/dignitary protection, etc. They are expensive. You need an encryption key for both ends of each radio. So having 20 guys on an encrypted channel means 40 keys. Each key is hundreds of dollars. Listening to that would be ridiculously expensive, difficult, and probably illegal.


So what to do?

Google and smart phones. You can get police scanner apps that basically connect you to a website that is streaming. Someone has the scanner for that police channel/department, and when it transmits they have a microphone there to stream it on their website, which your scanner app picks up.

Our dept had a multi million dollar contract with motorola, and was one of the first departments to use their new type of radio system, basically prototyping it. Many large government organizations are now using radio systems based off of this one we sort of spearheaded. I can listen to my dept's radio on my cellphone, and the delay is about 5-10 seconds behind my real radio.

The app I use is called police scanner, its free on the play store. I like it.

CangoFett

Also most depts use computers for damn near everything now a days. Gone are the days of telling dispatch you're stopping a car, giving location and plate, giving the drivers license #, and them telling you they are / arent wanted. Everything I just said is generally done silently over computers. You still get chatter, but nowhere near as much.