Police Scanner Review for iPhone and iPod Touch

As my wife and I pulled into the grocery store parking lot, we could see the lights of several police cars. As we got closer we could see the police tape surrounding a car. Then several officers were blocking our view of the car with white sheets. What was going on? What was happening? Our morbid curiosity was getting the best of us. If only we had a police scanner. A week later, my iPhone has one.

Review

Police Scanner is an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that allows you to locate and listen to police, fire. and EMS dispatch frequencies throughout the country. When you first launch the app it asks to use your location. It then finds all the frequencies for emergency dispatch in your area. You can change the radius of the search to the mileage of your choice. Once you find something you want to listen to, select it and wait a few seconds for the stream to begin. You can set favorites for easy access or find things to listen in on thousands of miles away. It’s fun.

I pulled out my iPhone at my sisters house. She has a real police scanner and I wanted to see how long the delay was. Since it’s streaming over the internet I assumed it would be a minute or two delay. In reality, it was15 seconds, tops.

I like this app but had one problem that may be a deal breaker. It crashes. A lot. Trying to use I may have to launch it 6 times before it will not crash on launch. Very, very annoying.

Next time I see some hubbub I can pull out my iPhone and get the lowdown. As long as the app doesn’t crash.

Tips

1.Not every area is available. I would suggest checking out the developers website to make sure your local stream is available.

Recommendation
If they can fix the crashing issue with an update I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this app. It sells for $2.99 and is available through the App Store right now.

Photos

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