Is there a delay on online police scanner feeds?

Yes. Expect a few seconds to around half a minute. The audio is received by someone's radio, encoded, sent to a streaming server and buffered by your device, and each step adds delay. Some feeds add a deliberate delay at the agency's request.

Do I need any equipment to listen online?

No. Online feeds are received and streamed by volunteers, so you need only a phone or a browser. A hardware scanner is only necessary if you want zero delay or want to hear channels nobody is streaming.

Why do some feeds stop working?

Feeds are run by individuals, and they go offline when equipment fails, internet drops or the operator stops. Increasingly they also stop because the agency has encrypted its radio system, which no app can work around.

Guides

How to listen to police scanners online

Someone near the transmitter runs a receiver, encodes the audio and streams it. You connect to that stream. No equipment, no programming, and access to any area someone is covering rather than only your own.

The three ways to listen

	Phone app	Web browser	Hardware scanner
Equipment needed	None	None	Scanner, antenna
Setup	Install and search	Open a page	Programming required
Delay	Seconds	Seconds	None
Coverage	Anywhere streamed	Anywhere streamed	Local reception only
Background listening	Yes	Awkward	Yes
Works without internet	No	No	Yes

Most people who listen regularly end up using an app, because the phone is already in their pocket and background playback means it survives locking the screen.

Why there is a delay

Online scanning is never instant. The chain is receiver, encoder, streaming server, your device's buffer, and each link adds a little. A few seconds is normal and up to half a minute is common. Some feeds also carry a deliberate delay applied at an agency's request, which is a condition of the feed being allowed to exist at all.

If you need genuinely live audio, that is the one thing only a hardware scanner provides.

Finding a feed worth listening to

Start with location, not name. Search your county rather than your city. Dispatch is often organised county wide.
Prefer dispatch channels if you want to follow events. Tactical and car to car channels are quieter and harder to follow.
Check whether it is actually active. Listener count is a decent proxy: a feed with steady listeners is usually a good one.
Try fire and EMS if police in your area are encrypted. They are encrypted far less often and dispatch is usually clear.

Reliability, and why so many feeds are dead

Feeds are run by volunteers on their own equipment and their own internet connection. They go down. A directory listing every feed ever registered is mostly a list of things that no longer work, which is why a good app checks feeds continuously and hides the broken ones. Police Scanner Pro probes stream health on a schedule and keeps failures out of results, restoring a feed automatically if it comes back.

Getting more out of it

Favourite the two or three feeds you actually use. Scrolling a national directory every time gets old quickly.
Listen to two at once if you follow a busy area. Police Scanner Pro's Dual Listen runs a primary and a monitor feed with separate volumes, so dispatch can sit under a tactical channel.
Watch for surges. A sudden jump in listeners on a feed is often the earliest public sign that something significant is happening.
Use the car properly. CarPlay and Android Auto give you favourites and nearby feeds without touching the phone.

Before you start

Check whether scanning is restricted where you live, particularly in a vehicle. See are police scanners legal. If the traffic in your area has gone quiet, encryption is the likely reason.

Questions? [email protected].

Get the app

Police Scanner Pro is free to download. Premium is optional.