[Tim john]

Good day all, Looking for recommendations on a quality police scanner. Is there a particular brand, model that is the one to have. Aging parents mentioned they would like to have one to listen to, therefore I would like to provide. Please advise, thank you.

Tim

[dataway]

I've been through a few scanners ... the unfortunate situation is right now that most public safety services have moved, or are moving to complex encrypted communications. There is less to listen to every day. The systems that are not encrypted often use complex trunking systems that can making programming and listening pretty frustrating.

If they live in a smallish town they can probably listen to local police and fire as small departments usually don't have the funds for the expensive encrypted systems.

If you are willing to attempt the programming and set it up for them it's possible they could get some entertainment.

At the likely level of simplicity a scanner your parents would enjoy operating, brand isn't going to be real important. Uniden and Whistler dominate the market and make good radios. With these brands price is going to be indicative of complexity and features, most of which your parents would not use, so probably no need to spend a lot of money.

I'm going to sympathize with you in advance ... My parents are in their mid-80's and I would not want to the job of teaching them to use a complex scanner ... they could barely handle the trail cam I got them

So, keep it simple and they will probably enjoy it much more.

[Stuart]

Depending on where they live they may be able to listen to police radio traffic online. You could do a search for "<city name> police scanner", or there's at least one website that has a list of available locations by city and state: https://onlinepolicescannerhq.com

[Tim john]

Thanks fellas, good advice. Yes, mid 80's age , small town USA and simplicity would be best. Thank You.

Tim

[JSchmitz]

There's also scanner apps. I have 5-0 radio. don't use it much. Last time I did there wasn't anything on.

[F ROCK]

Wow. Flashback.
My parents had a scanner during my childhood.
That thing was cranked to 11 all of the time. I hated it.
Now that I'm much older; and crime is much higher; I sometimes wish I could tune in and hear what is going on.
Thanks for that memory!

[Mr Anonymous]

Yes, they're trunked now and your best best is online or an app of some sort. I got into ham radio recently and found it somewhat enjoyable. Another avenue you might try.

FWIW, back in the 80s, my dad was a local township trustee. Three trustees, one over police, one over fire, one over road dept. My dad was over the police. He had a scanner on 24/7 because the dept was a train wreck, and severely underfunded to where I was working on cop cars in the driveway after school occasionally with my dad. Not surprisingly, my 76 Buick Skyhawk had no trouble outrunning their Dodge Diplomats. Couldnt outhandle one, but outrunning one was no problem with most of the cars on the road. I was good at installing gun racks and cages and radios in them though.

[Half-Inch Stud]

Back in the early 80s, 2 of my Pontiac buddies had police scanners, and a 3rd had MIL-Surplus radios (walkies, vehicles, and base) from the Vietnam era.

As for me, i was the tube audio and Ham guy, yet the reason for doing things together was always the cars, parts, and occasional beer gathering.

I too won't get befuddled with tiny soft-button ham-scanner radios, geez. Better be a tabletop with like 3 knobs.

[dataway]

Forgot all about the apps. If they have a smart phone or tablet you can download some great apps, just pic your area and what you want to listen too. Works better than my digital scanner cause people from all over are sending feeds into the app. Heck, you can listen to the police in NYC from CA if you want to.

I have an SDR (Software Defined Radio) setup on my computer, can do all kinds of trick stuff with that.