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For the better part of 30 years, I had a police scanner sitting on my desk.
A black box with a speaker and an antenna, its row of red lights cycled endlessly through the channels of various police, fire and emergency departments. Depending on the city where I sat in the newsroom, it either crackled constantly with the voices of dispatchers and officers or it sat mostly silent waiting for that distinctive tone signaling an emergency in progress.
Nowadays, the scanner is an app on your phone.
Here is a brief article adapted from the Ohio Newspaper Association on three apps that take the place of that squawking desktop box (and the brick-like ‘portable’ scanner the photographers used to carry.)
Free police scanner apps are perfect tools for reporters
By Josh Park, ONA Program Support Specialist
When it comes to staying on top of crimes and accidents as they develop, police scanners are essential for the newsroom. But instead of spending upwards of $200, consider downloading one of the many scanner apps, all of which come with more capabilities than the standard police scanner.
Although most apps are similar in their features – like chatrooms, timers to start and stop stations, using GPS to locate feeds and viewing the number of listeners – some scanner apps vary in what they can do. Check out these three, free apps below to see what might be the best fit for you:
Police Scanner + Free
This app for the iPhone allows you to browse police, fire, EMS, weather, railroad and radio stations by location or by most popular. You can search scanners in (most) Nevada counties, in other states and even other countries.
One helpful feature of the app allows users to record the station and email the soundbite as an mp3 file. Reporters can use this feature to send recordings to editors or use the dispatch calls as quotes in articles.
5-0 Radio Police Scanner
Another iPhone app, “5-0 Radio Police Scanner,” broadcasts live police, fire, aircraft, railroad, marine, emergency and ham radio stations. The app also features a map that finds the location of the scanner feed.
For reporters who aren’t familiar with police codes, the app includes a table of frequently used codes.
Scanner Radio
“Scanner Radio” for Android phones works similarly to the previous two apps when locating radio stations through GPS. The app features channels such as amateur radio, aviation, disaster event, marine, other, public safety, rail and special event.
With this app, users can set up notifications to their phone whenever there are a certain number of listeners on one station. This can be a great tool for breaking news, as more people will be tuned in to the station.
Two of my most memorable moments as a newspaper intern come back to me whenever I hear the scratch of a police microphone on the scanner.
I was in the pressroom at City Hall in Chicago when one of the beat reporters heard an ambulance being dispatched. ‘That’s the address of Daley’s doctor’s office,” he said. “He has an appointment there this afternoon.”
Sure enough, the infamous Richard J. Daley had suffered a heart attack and died that day in his doctor’s office.
A few days later, I was in the newsroom on Christmas Eve. This time it was a fire call — an apartment building set ablaze because someone was using a charcoal grill in the hallway. The occasion? A birthday party for a little boy named Jesus.
