An Arresting Alternative for Police Scanner Enthusiasts

One-Adam-12, 1-Adam-12, 211 in progress, corner 5th and Main, Code 3.

If Jack Webb were alive today, the erstwhile Sgt. Joe Friday of “Dragnet” fame would be amazed at who might be listening in on his favorite police department’s radio calls.

Police buffs, reporters and others have used radio scanners for years to monitor the calls between squad cars and dispatchers. But their use was largely limited by geography.

Today, however, Internet surfers on any continent can listen in on broadcasts of Los Angeles Police Department radio calls through PoliceScanner.com, one of the newer offerings of Dallas-based AudioNet, which bills itself as the largest broadcast network on the Net.

PoliceScanner.com “gives the scanner enthusiast an opportunity to listen to police and fire department frequencies from [distant] locations,” said Robert Davidman, sales director for AudioNet.

“We’ve gotten e-mail from Sweden, Australia, Austria, England. People sit there and listen to this for hours,” he said.

Access is not only for those in far-off locales. Almost anyone with a multimedia computer, a World Wide Web connection and Real Audio software can turn a computer into a scanner by linking to the service’s web site at www.policescanner.com.

The limitation is that the computer user is wedded to the company’s selection of scanned frequencies and is unable to select favorites. Visitors to the site also must listen to a short commercial for AudioNet or other projects.

The site does traditional scanners one better, however, with a directory of police codes. With a click of the mouse, the novice might discern that the LAPD code at the top of this story refers to a Central Division (“1”) two-officer squad car (“Adam”) assigned to beat “12” being told to respond to an armed robbery (“211”) with lights and siren (“Code 3”).

Listeners also can tune in to radio calls from the Dallas Police Department and the Dallas Fire Department. In addition, there are archived tapes of the cellular telephone call between O.J. Simpson and LAPD Det. Tom Lange during the now-infamous freeway chase. A link to Dallas/Fort Worth-area air traffic control frequencies is included.

The company has plans to add the Manhattan division of the New York Police Department.

Although Davidman said police “love to listen” to the new site, the LAPD is not so impressed. Citing a concern for officer safety, the LAPD declined to cooperate with the company, according to a department spokesman.

But with the popularity of traditional police radio scanners and real-life cop shows on television, it may be difficult to dissuade people from listening in and living vicariously.

“This is as real as it gets,” said Davidman.