It is not unlawful to listen to law enforcement transmissions
in the US. What is unlawful is to tell another person what
you heard.
wrote in message
caldomain...
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Unfortunately few of the police officers would really know what they are
talkinga bout when it comes to enforcement about laws on scanners and
would
probably give you the wrong answer out of ignorance or misguided
intentions.
Thankfully in Australia, the power to regulate scanning and other
communications issues rests with our commonwealth government (i.e.
federal
government) so the state government (and police forces) have no powers
to
deal with the issues relating to communications. Have seen a couple of
state coppers very ****ed off when it was pointed out to them they they
had
no legal right to confiscate scanners etc (unless used in the commission
of
a crime) - still, it makes sense not to be too open when using your
scanners.

In theory only the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has
jurisdiction over radio matters. No US state has made OWNING a scanner a
crime. I doubt they could. They're FCC type accepted and the FCC has
said they're legal in this country. However states and municipalities
have passed varying degrees of restrictions on where you can use a
scanner. Some get downright ridiculous. Alachua County, Florida passed
(or tried to pass) an ordinance banning the monitoring of their digital
TRS and possessing information about it (frequencies, talkgroups, etc.).
I don't know where that one went.

I just say use common sense and discretion and you'll have almost nothing
to worry about.

- --
John Mayson
Austin, Texas, USA

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