How to Listen to a Police Scanner for Free Without a Radio

If you have been interested in listening to a police scanner then you have come to the right place, because I will teach you how to listen to a police scanner for free without a radio.

Listening to police calls can be a fun change of pace or an interesting hobby depending on how much you find you enjoy the experience. I find listening to the calls fascinating and the experience really makes me respect the job that the folks in law enforcement do for the community each and every day.

Here is All You Need to Do

In fact you can listen to police dispatches, fire and paramedic calls, as well as aircraft communications on some of the feeds.

If you want to check it out for yourself then just head over to broadcastify.com. Click on the state you want to listen to. Click on the county you are interested in. Then look at what streams are available and click on one that interests you.

Not Every Area has Unencrypted Communications any Longer

Some area law enforcement agencies have decided to encrypt either some or all of their communications. If this is the case for the area in which you would like to listen to then you will have to choose another location that has communications that are unencrypted.

Encrypting police communications full-time is increasing in many areas as some agencies state that they are dealing with bad actors using smartphones and scanner apps to help them commit crimes.

Regardless of your view on encrypting police communications, it is an increasing reality all over the U.S. and so it is unknown how long these feeds will continue to be available.

Ideal for Listening to Activity in Areas Beyond the Reach of Your Scanner

I find these feeds very useful for checking out activity in areas beyond the listening range capabilities of my scanner. For instance one use may be if you are looking to move and you would like to know what the neighborhood is like before you commit. This could be a great way to passively check that out.

Or maybe you are just an armchair nosy police scanner junkie like me who just likes to listen to dispatches in other areas to hear how they do things there.

Great for Monitoring Wildfires or Weather Incidents Elsewhere

Another great use for these scanner feeds are monitoring wildfires and other weather incidents other places.

Recently, the California wildfires have hit California especially hard this year and I have been listening to what an incredible job the men and women of CalFire are doing in areas of the state beyond my immediate location.

There are Also Busy Airports and Air Traffic Control

There are many times where I like to listen to the airport traffic at my local airport as well as local air traffic controllers.

If you like to listen to aircraft, air traffic control, or ground communications then you can also listen to a feed that features these kinds of communications on the website as well.

If monitoring any of these types of communications is of interest to you, then perhaps you should give broadcastify.com a try. You might just like it as much as I do.

If you are already way into scanner streams, then maybe it is time for your own police scanner or a software defined radio. We will talking about and reviewing these so stay tuned.