Flashing lights show up at the end of your street, and nobody you ask has any idea why. Could you simply hear the dispatcher yourself?
In much of the United States you can, and it takes no hardware. Volunteers feed police, fire and EMS traffic online, some agencies publish their own, and an app lets you find a feed for your area and press play.
This guide compares Scanner Radio, Squawster and CrimeRadar and says plainly what each one costs, where its ads appear and what none of them can open.
Start with Scanner Radio 👇
6 min read
📋 What you’ll find here
- Listen from home, not from the scene
- Why a phone can do a scanner’s job
- Scanner Radio: the most downloaded of the three
- Squawster: the new app from the Broadcastify team
- CrimeRadar: a map of incidents instead of channels
- What is free and where the ads start
Key Takeaways
- All three apps are free to download and show ads, and each sells an optional paid upgrade
- Scanner Radio and Squawster play live radio feeds, while CrimeRadar maps incidents with AI summaries and the original audio
- When a police department encrypts its radio, no app can open that channel
- The radio is for staying informed, not for heading to the scene; if you need help, call 911
Listen from home, not from the scene
What comes over the radio is information, not a summons. If something is happening near you, keep clear of it, give the crews room to work, and if you are the one in trouble, dial 911 instead of opening an app.
Tuning in to stay ahead of officers, or to line up a crime, is illegal. This guide is for the curious.
Why a phone can do a scanner’s job
A scanner is a receiver tuned to nearby frequencies. These apps replace it with a stream: a volunteer, or in some places the agency itself, sends the audio online, and your phone plays it. Distance stops mattering, so a feed from across the country plays as easily as one from your own county.
On your side the list is short, and the one real limit sits outside it. A scanner listens to the air, while an app plays what someone else uploaded. A town with no uploader, or one whose radio is scrambled, comes up empty however good the app is.
- A data plan or a Wi-Fi network that can carry live audio
- Headphones, if the room should not hear the dispatcher
- Location permission, optional, so the app can suggest feeds close to home
Scanner Radio: the most downloaded of the three
Of the three, Scanner Radio is the one most people have installed: Google Play shows more than 10 million downloads for this GordonEdwards.net LLC app, against 1M+ for CrimeRadar and 10K+ for Squawster. The App Store calls it Police Scanner Radio & Fire, so search by developer if the names differ.
It is a directory of live feeds, with lists of nearby and popular ones, favorites, and an alert when a feed passes a listener threshold. Where do the feeds come from? The App Store listing says volunteers provide them, along with many police and fire departments directly, for Broadcastify.com and a few other sites.
The download is free, with ads and in-app purchases, and Pro removes the ads. Many recent U.S. App Store reviews grumble about renewals and ads, so slow down at every price screen.
Squawster: the new app from the Broadcastify team
RadioReference.com LLC released Squawster on September 17, 2026, and the Google Play listing calls its developer the team behind Broadcastify. Feeds are grouped by county, state and metro, there is a search by name and a shortcut to whatever is active near you, and the sound carries on after the screen locks.
It is also very young, and the ratings show it: on October 26 Google Play listed 77 ratings and the App Store 159, so a 4.3 or a 4.5 is a first impression, not a verdict. The description calls it free to browse and listen, and Pro is the US$4.99-a-month iOS subscription.
CrimeRadar: a map of incidents instead of channels
CrimeRadar, from Scoopz, answers the siren question another way. Instead of asking you to find a channel, it plots incidents on a map from live dispatch audio, adds a brief AI summary to each and lets you hear the source audio, with alerts for the incidents you choose to follow.
It works in the United States only and does not browse by radio channel. The App Store description warns that its content is not an official report or verified information, and a Google Play reviewer in September gave an example: a highway number came out wrong in the transcript, and ‘were advised’ became ‘were racing’.
Dispatch audio can name people and give street addresses, so keep it private instead of reposting it. The download is free, with ads, and Premium is US$9.99 a month or US$79.99 a year. The store listings do not spell out which features stay free.
What is free and where the ads start
Before you confirm any subscription, find the date of the first charge. Apps in this category sometimes open with an introductory deal that rolls into a paid plan, and that date is worth a calendar reminder.
The table sums up what the three listings said on Google Play and the U.S. App Store on October 26, 2026.
| App | Free version | Paid upgrade |
|---|---|---|
| Scanner Radio | Live feeds, with ads and in-app purchases | Pro removes the ads; the price is in the store listing |
| Squawster | Free to browse and listen, with ads | Pro, US$4.99 a month on iOS: ad-free, playlists, cloud sync, archived recordings |
| CrimeRadar | Free to download, with ads; the listings do not say what the free version includes | Premium, US$9.99 a month or US$79.99 a year |
When your city’s channel goes silent
One reason a channel goes quiet is encryption, and an encrypted channel is closed to every app. Fairfax, Virginia, is one case: a notice on the city’s website in July 2026 said its police department’s main dispatch channel would stop appearing in scanner apps and online streams on July 13.
Fire, rescue and neighboring-county feeds are separate channels and may be open, so try those before you decide the app is broken.
What 10-4 and the other codes mean
Ten-codes are a shorthand some agencies use, and no single list fits every department, so read these as typical meanings rather than promises:
- 10-4: got it
- 10-7: unit is unavailable
- 10-9: please repeat
- 10-20: your location
Where state law gets specific: the car
Most people listen at home, and the rules start to matter in the car. Some states restrict equipment able to pick up police frequencies in a vehicle, in some cases only when a crime, a weapon or drugs are involved. Your state’s law is the one to read before you listen on the road.
Is it worth it?
Yes, if you want to know what that siren was about and can live with ads. Start with Scanner Radio for live channels in your area, try Squawster if you prefer to browse by county, and use CrimeRadar when you would rather read an incident than hunt for a channel.
This article is informative and independent. Ratings, prices and downloads were checked on Google Play and the U.S. App Store on October 26, 2026. We have no connection with the developers or with any police agency, and we are not responsible for how the apps work, for the accuracy of what you hear or read, or for changes in price.
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FAQ
Why is my local police channel silent?
Two likely reasons: nobody has put it online, or the department scrambled it. Encryption shuts every app out, though fire, rescue or neighboring-county feeds can still play.
What does it cost to use these apps?
Installing any of the three is free, and all three show ads. Squawster’s description says it is free to browse and listen, and Scanner Radio sells Pro to remove the ads. CrimeRadar sells Premium, and its store listings do not say what the free version leaves out, so read any price screen before you confirm.
Can the AI summary be wrong?
Yes. The CrimeRadar listing itself says its content is not an official report or verified information, and users have reported transcript mistakes. Treat a summary as a lead.
Which phones do the apps run on?
Each has an Android version on Google Play and an iPhone version on the App Store. CrimeRadar works in the United States only.
Can I tune in to a city where I do not live?
Yes. Any feed that somebody streams is open to you, wherever it is; distance does not matter online.
Should I post what I hear online?
Better not. Dispatch audio can name people and give addresses, and sharing it can put them at risk.
