If you’re a licensed ham radio operator, whether or not you can pickup police signals using your ham radio may be of interest to you. Most likely, you’re interested in knowing this so you can avoid listening in on private conversations that do not concern you, and may potentially be a criminal offence if you are listening. So, can a ham radio pickup police signals?
The answer to that question varies wildly, based primarily on your location. Most police forces use radios that are encrypted, meaning that amateur ham radio users wouldn’t come across police signals by accident. In order to listen in on these encrypted signals, you’d have to purposefully try to decrypt it. As you might have guessed though, this is a criminal offence. Trying to decrypt something that has been deliberately kept private should tell you that you shouldn’t be trying to listen in to these conversations anyway. That being said, not all police forces are using encrypted radios, so in theory it is possible for somebody to access these police signals, and potentially do it by accident.
First of all though, you have to understand that the type of ham radio you are using might prevent you from stumbling across signals you aren’t interested in anyway. Some ham radios are not designed for receiving messages outside of the ham band i.e. they are not wide band receive capable. This means that you will not accidentally stumble upon police signals anyway. However, if your device is wide band receive capable, there is a chance that you might find police signals without necessarily meaning to, but only where these police signals are not encrypted. Because of the extra frequencies that these ham radios are capable of picking up on, it is possible that you might come across police frequencies by chance.
Is listening to police signals illegal?
Say for instance you are in a state where police signals are not encrypted, and your ham radio is wide band receive capable, and you stumble across a police signal accidentally – what happens now? Well, in many states it is illegal to listen to police signals. However, there are a number of exceptions, and one of these includes being an amateur radio operator. Now, it’s important to note that this exception doesn’t apply to every state, and it also doesn’t mean you are free to access police radio as you please and spend your days listening to police signals.
This exception was included for the exact scenario we have just spoke about: where you stumble across a police signal accidentally. If you are consistently listening to police signals, for whatever reason, you may be deemed as having committed a criminal offence and will be charged and punished accordingly. So always exercise caution if you come across any police signals.
But there’s good news! If you are a regular ham radio amateur without sinister intentions, then stumbling across a police signal, and stopping listening as soon as you have, won’t be a problem. So you can be rest assured that when using your ham radio, you are not at risk of accidentally committing a crime, so long as you respect police privacy and move on after doing so. Again, most people would naturally do this anyway, because listening to police signals does feel morally wrong, but its worth pointing out to reassure anybody who might be nervous about using a ham radio in case they come across police signals. Anybody who is deliberately listening to police signals on a regular basis, run the risk of being caught by the police and charged for committing a criminal offence.
So Can a ham radio pickup police signals?
In short, in some states when using some ham radios, it is possible for an individual to pickup police signals. However, in some states this is against the law and will be treated as a criminal offence. There are however, exceptions to this law that must be taken into account. The answer to the question ‘can a ham radio pickup police signals’ is basically yes and no. It varies widely, but as a general rule, you probably shouldn’t listen to police signals if you come across them, to prevent you from getting into difficulty with the police later on. Just be sensible, and you’ll have nothing to worry about.
