They are illegal to have in your personal vehicle. They consider them criminal tools if you do have one and get stopped.

 

I have several scanners, ones a digital so I can catch our State and County, then I have a Trunking scanner so I can catch my city. I have never brought them with me and I just listen to them at home. I am more into the CB radio and Amateur radio type things and have them in both my cars.

 

Scanner laws vary from state to state. Indiana, Minnesota, and no doubt many others prohibit their use in cars. Minnesota offers a special permit that allows them, you just have to apply and fill out paperwork. Illinois, Wisconsin, etc have no laws against scanners. Keep in mind, if you are doing something suspicious and get pulled over, having a scanner is going to look even more suspicious, even if they're legal.

Mine is an old Regency HX1500, which was the top of the line model before Bearcat/Uniden bought them out back about 1988. This model is more powerful than all of them except for maybe the biggest desktop scanners. Its only 55 channels, and it doesn't get the 400 or 800 MHZ bands that the police use nowadays, but it works for other stuff amazingly well.

 

You can find a police scanner in a radio shack, at least thats where i got mine a few year ago. All you can do is listen in on the calls you cant actually talk on it. Also last time I checked with my cop buddy it is illegal to have then in your car, and your screwed if you use it to get away from the cops.

 

Yeah, it seems like it is more of a risk than worth it. Even if I did figure out all those codes, when I do get pulled over(it is inevitable), I'm sure it will **** that officer off that I was listening in on them..

I think I will scrap the idea, although I have learned alot from what you guys have told me.. Thanks!!

 

it's usually illegal to have one in a mobile location (i.e. a car)
I think Uniden made a unit that worked like a radar detector and detected the freq of their radios or something
not 100% on how it worked, but when I read the info, it seemed like it would be able to detect the proximity of you to police cars with their communication systems on board


and since when do police text for the majority of their communication? wouldn't it be more of a hassle, and less to text when driving, instead of using the radio?? i'm surprised to read this

 

How many people have ACTUALLY ever LISTENED to police radio communications? You'd be lucky if they disclosed any information to tip you off that theirs anything near you.

 

Correct, I listen to one here at school to monitor campus police and sheriff activity, and there is a TON of bullshit on there, in fact there is actually pretty much never any traffic chatter on there

 

i have listened to a few, but more or less its just fire calls and emt