What a Scanner Can Actually Hear in Chico
Chico Police encrypted their radio. CalFire, county fire, CHP and Chico State are still wide open — and in this county, that is the traffic that matters most.
Here is the honest answer, which is not the answer most sites will give you. Chico Police encrypted their dispatch channel and it is gone — no scanner receives it, at any price. What is still open is the fire side, and in Butte County that is not a consolation prize. CalFire and county fire dispatch is where a wildfire gets called in, and where you hear an evacuation order being built before it reaches your phone.
What you’ll be hearing
CalFire & Butte County Fire
The channel that matters here. New starts, air attack, strike teams and evacuation traffic across the county — the same dispatch the crews are working from.
Chico Fire dispatch
City fire and medical calls as they are toned out, including the structure fires and rescues inside town.
CHP Chico
Highway 99, Highway 32 and the Skyway — wrecks, closures and winter conditions, live from the units on scene.
Chico State & campus
University police traffic, plus the weather and evacuation alerts that follow a red-flag warning in this part of the valley.
We do the hard part for you
Nothing to program. Tell us your Chico or Butte County address and we load the CalFire, county fire, city fire and CHP channels that actually reach it. It arrives listening. We will also tell you plainly which agencies near you have gone encrypted, before you spend anything.
Not in Chico? We program a scanner for any U.S. address.
Check your area free and see exactly what you can hear before you buy.
Frequently asked questions
Can I hear Chico Police on a scanner?
No. Chico Police encrypted their radio under California’s 2020 DOJ directive, and because the department runs essentially one channel, encrypting it took the whole thing. Encrypted traffic cannot be decoded by any scanner — there is no model, antenna or setting that changes that.
Then is a scanner still worth buying in Chico?
In this county, yes, and we would not say so if we did not mean it. Butte County is fire country. CalFire and county fire dispatch is open, and it is the channel that tells you a fire has started and where it is heading, often well before an official alert goes out. Plenty of people here own a scanner for exactly that.
Would a more expensive scanner get me Chico PD?
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a return. Encryption is not a signal-quality problem. A radio that decoded it would be illegal to sell in the United States.
What about the Butte County Sheriff?
We will not promise it. There is no working public feed of county law-enforcement dispatch here, which is the practical test we use. Give us your address and we will tell you exactly what is receivable at it rather than guessing.
Is it legal to listen?
Yes. Listening to public-safety radio is legal in California. What is not legal, here or anywhere, is using what you hear to commit or assist a crime.
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Photo: Frank Schulenburg / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Encryption status verified August 2026.
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