Scanner owners can listen to police and fire radio transmissions within range, and people have been doing in their own municipalities for years. Now RadioReference.com is providing live feed online for several jurisdictions around the country. Click the link, select a state, and narrow in on a city.
Midland, Texas, is in there. I first connected with it yesterday morning and heard a report about an unconscious man in a pickup truck. Turns out it was a murder. Yikes!
Uh oh. I hope I didn't just violate that ancient provision in the city code which says no unauthorized person "shall intercept any communication and divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purpose, effect or meaning of such intercepted communication." See Listening in on the police radio? Shhhh, don't tell anyone for a previous discussion of that 1953 effort at criminalizing peaceful behavior which remains on the books.
Better to go listen in on Reno 911, the real one, not the tv show.
I believe federal law supercedes the city code. News people have been utilizing the police radio in their work for eons.
Posted by: Dom Evets | October 08, 2009 at 09:38 AM
Dom, I'm not surprised that news people are using scanners. In fact, sometimes in a local tv news broadcast the sound of a fire department radio alert can be heard in the background.
Posted by: Geo | October 08, 2009 at 12:58 PM