Top 10 Police Scanner Apps of 2024: Find the Best for iPhone & More
Best Police Scanner App
The Best Police Scanner Apps For Ios And Android
You don’t have to be an investigative journalist or a private investigator in an old noir film to use a police scanner, nor do you need to splurge on a stand-alone computer just to get the inside scoop. The right smartphone app will allow you to eavesdrop with ease and stay informed about the goings-on in your neighborhood, including emergencies and current road conditions.
For your convenience, we’ve rounded up the best police scanner applications below. Did you land here looking for police radar detectors? Here are our choices for the best radar detectors you can purchase.
Police Scanner
See it This unimaginatively but appropriately called app comes with a high recommendation from a retired NYPD sergeant who is an acquaintance of the writer. When you first run the app, it takes you on a brief tour of its capabilities. Even the free app has an enticing dark mode, and you can search local and popular police radio channels, designate favorites, and see notifications from around the world.
If you want to listen to police calls until you sleep, the app has a timer similar to that of TuneIn Radio. It’s 10- code page lets you sort by department and category, because it’s better than a list that may or may not refer to the region you’re listening to. The map feature only shows a pinpoint in the general area of the precinct you’re listening to. One special feature in the Police Scanner app is walkie-talkie. No, it doesn’t let you join in on the police’s radio conversation; it only lets you leave brief voice messages in the channel for other users of the app.
You can hear some salty words, so be warned! Police Scanner Pro is one of the more pricy apps in its category. You have an option of paying $2.99 per week, $9.99 a month, or $39.99 a year. Platforms: Android
Fire Radio
5-0 Radio Police Scanner: Best For Low-Cost Pro Version
See it The Pro edition of this app was the highest paying download in the Apple App Store on June 1 ( Police scanner app catapults to the top of the App Store ), and it has a user rating of 4.6 in the store, both of which are no small feats. The app’s starting gui is very simple, just a text list of top, local, and other feeds.
Like the other apps here, it can show you a map of the area you’re listening to, but it was zoomed out to the country level for NYPD not particularly informative. It also lets you designate favourites and can display police 10- codes. The app also can play HD music streams from internet radio stations around the world. Unfortunately, the free edition has no search feature. The paid version is cheaper than most, at only a $4.99 one-time charge. It eliminates advertisements, adds more feeds (according to the company, though users say it’s the same in the comments), and lets you record and share transmissions.
It also adds a timer, siren noisemaker, and custom backgrounds. Another possible advantage of purchasing the app is that its creator has announced that the company would donate proceeds to anti-racist organizations Platforms: Windows
5-0 Radio Police Scanner
Broadcastify Platforms iOS Android The daddy of all broadcasting and police scanner applications, Broadcastify has access to “over 6000” broadcasts from various official and unofficial outlets, including police, fire, maritime, aviation and amateur radio. Its Material Design-inspired interface makes it immediately familiar to use, with a search feature, the option to use your location to find your nearest feeds, and a Favorites list so you can easily jump into the feeds most important to you.
One of the best features, however, is the ability to set up Push alerts for particular radio stations, so if any big accidents occur on them, you’ll be alerted right away. This is the most full police scanner app out there. 2. Broadcastify Platforms iOS Android The daddy of all broadcasting and police scanner applications, Broadcastify has access to “over 6000” broadcasts from various official and unofficial outlets, including police, fire, maritime, aviation and amateur radio.
Its Material Design-inspired interface makes it immediately familiar to use, with a search feature, the option to use your location to find your nearest feeds, and a Favorites list so you can easily jump into the feeds most important to you. One of the best features, however, is the ability to set up Push alerts for particular radio stations, so if any big accidents occur on them, you’ll be alerted right away. This is the most full police scanner app out there.
Police Scanner Radio & Fire: Best For Customizable Interface
Platforms Android Police Scanner X tunes in to several of the largest police precinct radios all over the U.S. and includes a table of 10-codes so you can decode the cryptic, codified language used by the police throughout contact. You can configure your favorite police streams to tap into easily and can also auto-resume the last one you were listening to.
It’s quite minimal beyond that, but it’s very probably everything you need. Between both of the above applications, you should have everything you need to search police, fire brigade, or amateur ham radio anywhere you want. For more phone-based tinkering, check out our list of the hacking applications for Android .
Also, see this trick for running iOS apps on Android Related: How to Fully Block Internet Access for Unique Android Apps 3 Helpful Android Apps to Monitor App Use on Android 6 of the Best iPhone and Android Apps to Help You Beat Porn Addiction Is this article useful?
Police Scanner X
See it This attractive and versatile orange-toned app provides all of its radio listening free, but paying $2.99 a month for the Pro version eliminates advertisements, lets you apply themes and dark mode, and gets you widget features.
You can sort channels by listener popularity or nearness, or filter by genre, region, source, and newest. The app lets you designate favorites for easy access. There’s a News tab, and the app will give you news updates, but they’re not filtered by region, which means they come from all over the country. It would be more useful if you could set some standards for your news view.
Speaking of Notifications, you can also set these up for events from individual, neighboring, or favorited scanners, or for when a given number of users are listening to a channel. Police Scanner Radio & Fire also has a page of police 10- codes, but its map feature only displays the area protected by the department you’re listening to. Platforms: Android
Police Scanner Radio & Fire
Police Scanner+: Best For Cool Interface
Besides using police-scanning apps, there are other ways to keep yourself (and others) safe during demonstrations. You should keep these privacy strategies in mind when supporting the cause from your home as well, particularly in your communications. Read our additional coverage for more information:
How to Help Protesters From Home 14 Important Apps for Protecting Your Privacy Online Signal Adds Face-Blurring Tool Share: If you live in the best neighborhood possible or the streets around you are teeming with crime, it’s always important to stay in the know about what’s going on around you. While you could keep an eye on the local news programs or scan social media for any of the 411, there’s an even more straightforward way to keep an eye out for any happenings you need to keep on your radar:
With these easy ways to listen in on police, fire department, and other emergency service radio broadcasts, you’ll always be able to check the airwaves around you for vital details on what’s going on during a crisis. Check out these applications to see what’s really going on all around you in your area, whether you’re just visiting or you’re hanging out at home. Share:
If you live in the best neighborhood possible or the streets around you are teeming with crime, it’s always important to stay in the know about what’s going on around you. While you could keep an eye on the local news programs or scan social media for any of the 411, there’s an even more straightforward way to keep an eye out for any happenings you need to keep on your radar:
With these easy ways to listen in on police, fire department, and other emergency service radio broadcasts, you’ll always be able to check the airwaves around you for vital details on what’s going on during a crisis. Check out these applications to see what’s really going on all around you in your area, whether you’re just visiting or you’re hanging out at home.
Recording
Apps like Citizen and Neighbors, which is affiliated with Amazon’s Ring surveillance cameras, will help users keep track of crime and police activity in their communities. Neighborhood messaging systems like Nextdoor, as well as community pages on Facebook, can also help keep residents in the loop. Of these, Citizen has seen the biggest rise, according to Apptopia.
From the weeklong period ending May 27, during which a police officer killed George Floyd, to the weeklong period ending on June 10, the number of downloads jumped 325 percent to 306,000 total downloads. The app aggregates information on police incidents from 911 calls and crime reports and sends them in updates to users. Ice cream shop owner Katie Wages lives in Emeryville, California, where looting hit shopping centers in late May. She’s been using
Citizen to watch where demonstrations with crowds and a police presence are taking place. The app, she says, also gives her “comfort” that her business is secure. Users should be mindful that information exchanged in some of these applications will go to law enforcement, possibly involving them in a police investigation. For example, several police departments work with Ring to see details posted on the Neighbors app, and may use a portal to request Ring camera footage from residents. (Residents aren’t forced to comply.)
A Citizen representative said that the organization doesn’t exchange details with police unless met with a warrant or subpoena.
And Internet Radio
Encrypted messaging app Signal adds facial recognition security for protesters Why you need a better handle on the WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram apps Ring doorbells and the police: What to do if surveillance has you concerned Encrypted messaging is useful for people who want to keep their text messages secret, including protesters debating how best to mobilize, said Cooper Quintin, a senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
However, the apps have limitations. Signal and similar services encrypt your messages as they move over the internet to your contact’s computer. That means your phone companies and your internet service providers can’t read them, unlike your standard SMS text messages, which are sent in plaintext. It’s important to note, however, that the apps don’t encrypt messages on your mobile .
Anyone who has access to your phone will usually read them. If you’re worried about law enforcement or someone else reading your messages if you get arrested or lose your phone, you need to take extra precautions, Quintin said. Signal provides a disappearing-message feature, which deletes messages after a predetermined period of time after you’ve read them. That makes text messages “much closer to something like actually whispering to your friends,” Quintin said.
More Ways To Stay Safe
There is a myriad of police scanner applications that are on the market all over the world. So yes, police scanner apps work and it is legal to listen to various channels with these devices. If you want an app for iPhone/iOS, go with Broadcastify. It’s the most secure police scanner app for Apple iPhone.
For our Android fans, Scanner Radio is a better option. But no matter what scanning app you want, you’ll find it easier to pick up signals while traveling on the lane. This makes scanning simpler too, unlike going through all the trouble of programming a police scanner radio yourself.