The Ultimate Guide to Live Emergency Radio Feeds

In order to protect and help citizens through emergency efforts, police and fire departments use emergency radio scanners to receive up to the second notifications from the department and mend and women in the field. Radio scanners are a method of communication between members of a team to maintain contact about emergency or potentially dangerous situations. Police officers communicate between dispatch and other personnel in the area to notify them about specific situations. The fire department and emergency medical teams use radio scanners to update their station or area facilities of incoming wounded or if assistance is necessary, and air traffic control communicates with pilots through radio scanners for use during flying and landing. There are many situations where radio scanners are used to help guide emergency workers in their efforts and to maintain safety.

Many citizens today may also purchase their own radio scanner and if they are familiar with their area codes, can follow the communication that goes on between safety personnel in the area. Following emergency communication is not a violation of privacy rights, and anyone can listen to radio feeds as an interesting and informative method of finding out what is happening in their locale. The internet has made listening to live radio feeds even easier, and citizens have access to many sites that provide feeds. These sites require the use of specific media software and some involve membership at the site to listen.

People listen to emergency radio scanners for various reasons. There are those who are radio enthusiasts who enjoy working with radio equipment and discovering what frequencies are available for listening. Some people listen to emergency radio feeds because they are interested in emergency medicine or police work, and they want to learn some of the jargon. Many off-duty officers listen to radio feeds to keep up with what is happening in their area while they are not at work. There are also citizens who listen to remain informed about what is going on in their neighborhood in order to promote the protection and well-being of local residents. Listening to radio feeds is an interesting way to stay involved in the community.

• New York: Live audio feeds available for New York County in New York, including fire dispatch, emergency medical services, and traffic safety. The feeds are noted as being offline or online when available.

• Las Vegas: Available live police and fire communications in Las Vegas by online streaming.

• Dallas: A live scanner feed for the Dallas/Fort Worth area, including emergency medical services, fire, and police department. Compatible with iTunes, VLC Media Player, Winamp, and XMMS.

• Chicago: Live feed for police and fire department communication. Available through the Firefox browser or it also can be played on an iPhone.

• Los Angeles: The county sheriff feed for Los Angeles, offered by Radio Reference. There are several players available for listening, including Windows, iTunes, and Java, among others.

• New Orleans: The website of Project NOLA, a community action site for New Orleans. Listening to police scanners requires a free registration at the site.

• Miami: Air traffic control feed for the Miami airport. There are three different methods of listening to activity: via Flash, Java, or through an MP3 player. The site also lists when the feed is available and how many others are listening at the time.

• Detroit: A live broadcast of the police scanner for the Detroit area police department that is available through an amateur radio station. The feed is accessible through Windows Media Player.

• San Francisco: A page with scanner feeds for the fire department for various sectors of the San Francisco Bay area. Several dispatch areas can be heard by clicking the location.

• Washington DC: Live feed from the metropolitan police department of Washington DC. The site also has availability of listening via a Blackberry or cell phone if the radio is down.

• Houston: A scanner feed of the emergency medical and fire departments of Houston. The feed can be heard through Real Player, iTunes, QuickTime, Winamp, or VLC.

• Baltimore: Live feed for the Baltimore city police, which is available through internet radio. The site also lists disposition codes for listeners to understand what the officers are discussing.

• Boston: News, police, and fire feeds available for scanning enthusiasts in the Boston area. The site has multiple areas of information about various Boston activities as well as forums for those connected.

• Phoenix: Internet streaming of air traffic control feeds for towers in and around Phoenix. The site lists the streaming status as well as the radio frequency that is being used.

• Atlanta: Fire department feeds available for the Atlanta area. The site lists the current number of listeners and has options for listening through several types of media software.

For people who want to listen to live radio feeds from anywhere in the country, the internet has various sites that will direct listeners to what city they are interested in. There are directories available with police, fire, emergency medical, air traffic control, and railroad feeds, all compiled into one location that is accessible for what the area of interest is.

• Radio Reference: Live audio feed for over 1,700 locations across the United States. Listeners can choose their city of interest through an interactive map or by a list of what cities have available online feeds.

• ScannerFeeds: A comprehensive directory for live feeds for fire, police, air traffic control, and emergency medical services at sites across the United States. Listeners can check the drop-down menu in the upper left corner of the page to choose which state they want in order to narrow the search.

• Police Scanner: Live police scanner audio feeds for various locations throughout the United States. The site has a directory of states with available feeds for listeners to narrow their search.

• Scanner Master: A directory of websites that offer live scanner feeds for listening to police, fire, and emergency medical services in various parts of the country.

• Police Scanners: Site listings for various police, fire, and ambulance feeds in multiple cities.

This article was written by Mike Haldas, co-founder and managing partner of CCTV Camera Pros. If you found it useful, please share it.