Cop Radio Police Scanner app review: listen to police, fire, and EMS stations

Introduction

Cop Radio Police Scanner by Rego Apps is a multi-purpose scanner that allows you to listen to fire, EMS, police, and airport radios. You also can listen to non-official stations like music, talk, and comedy. The app is really easy to use and offers a lot of features.

What It's All About

In most places, as long as you’re not planning to use this app to help you get away with a crime, you’re allowed to listen in on police chatter all you want. In some states, though, it is illegal to even have a police scanner. In the event you’d like to download this app and try it out, check out your local laws first.

This app has tons of features. Just the scanner portion allows you to record and email copies of MP3 files to yourself or other people. You can use the station to wake up to, chat with other listeners, and even set a timer to stop the station at a certain time if you are listening to it as you fall asleep.

 

What You Can Do With It

I’ve got a bit more experience than most when it comes to cop lingo, but I must say that I have never tried out a police scanner before. I’ve never quite seen the appeal of it, but I guess when there is something big going on it might be kind of cool to be able to listen in.

The other options here allow you to browse radio stations by genre, listen to the most popular, or do a keyword search if you have something specific in mind.

The scanner portion allows you to browse by location, search for nearby scanners, or listen to the most popular ones. I tried out the nearby scanners feature to see what it would pick up, and it gabve me 15 options, from Public Works to airports to regional police services and fire departments. I was quite surprised that it picked up that many. The Most Popular option showed police and fire scanners from all over North America: Chicago Police and Fire, San Diego Police Dispatch, Central Victoria Police and CFA, and Columbus Police Citywide Dispatch, among others. I didn’t expect to be able to listen in from that far away!

The app also offers a bright flashlight function, social media sharing, and the ability to save a station or scanner to your favorites.

One thing to note, which I didn’t realize until after I had downloaded and tried out the app, is that with the most recent update (Version 2.0), the developer re-released this app as Police Scanner+ Free. Cop Radio Police Scanner will not be updated or supported any longer, so you may want to switch over to the new version. 

 

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Lots of different police, fire, ambulance, airport, and other scanners to listen to
• Can also listen to music, comedy, and talk stations
• Use it with an alarm to wake up to your favorite scanner or station
• Flashlight feature

 

Cons

• This app won’t be supported anymore, which isn’t clearly advertised on the iTunes info page.

 

Final Verdict

Surprisingly, I really like this app. I can’t say that I’ll listen to it all the time, but it might be amusing to listen in once in a while. It offers a surprising amount of features and works really well. I wish they would keep support for this app going – why do they need to change to a different app? I’ll keep this one on my device, since I already have it, until it doesn’t work for me anymore. It works just fine at the moment.