How We Check What a Scanner Can Hear in Your County

Most sites will tell you a scanner "hears police" and stop there. We give a county-level answer, so it is fair to ask where that answer comes from — and where it runs out. This page is the honest version.

Three sources, and we tell you which one you got

Every answer the zip code checker returns is drawn from one of three tiers. They are not equally strong, so we label them rather than blending them into a single confident-sounding verdict.

1. Hand-verified counties

We read the public frequency record channel by channel and record the agency, frequency, tone and mode for each one. These counties return a per-agency yes or no, and the county guide lists every frequency with a CSV download. It is slow work, so the list grows steadily rather than all at once.

What it proves: what is listed, agency by agency. Where it runs out: agencies migrate, so a verified county is accurate as of its stated review date, not forever.

2. The national P25 trunking record

Counties named in the Project 25 Technology Interest Group trunking list of 15 January 2026 are flagged as running a digital trunked system. That list covers 1,372 systems and names 271 US counties in public safety entries.

What it proves: if your county is on it, a conventional analog scanner will not follow county public safety. That is a hard no, and we say so. Where it runs out: absence is not evidence of analog. The record covers P25 trunking only — not conventional P25, not DMR, not NXDN. A county missing from it may still be digital.

3. State-level context

Whether your state runs a statewide digital network, and how far local adoption has actually gone. Some states are nearly all analog at county level; others have close to universal adoption of a statewide P25 system.

What it proves: the general shape of your state. Where it runs out: two neighbouring counties can be completely different. This is real guidance, not a verdict.

One source we tested and rejected

The FCC's Universal Licensing System publishes every active land mobile licence in the country, including the emission designator that says whether a licence is for analog or digital voice. On paper that looks like a way to score all 3,144 counties at once. We parsed it — 331,802 active licences, 116,403 of them public safety — and then threw the result away.

It does not work, and the reason is worth understanding. Fresno County comes back 93% analog, which is correct. But Montgomery County, Maryland comes back 90% analog, Honolulu 82%, Broward 74% — and all three run fully digital statewide or countywide networks. Agencies renew analog licences for decades after they have migrated, and the records mix live dispatch with tactical, mutual aid and public works.

A licence is permission to transmit. It is not evidence that anyone is transmitting. Any coverage claim built on licence data alone is measuring paperwork, not radio traffic.

Where we have published county guides

Each of these lists the local agencies and, where we have verified the county by hand, every frequency with tone and mode.

California

• Fresno County
• Tulare County
• Merced County
• Bakersfield & Kern County

Montana

• Bozeman & Gallatin County
• Missoula County

Texas

• Houston & Harris County
• Montgomery County

Elsewhere

• Polk County, Florida
• Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
• Scioto County, Ohio
• Blount County, Tennessee
• Greene County, Mississippi
• Columbia & Boone County, Missouri

Your county is not here

That means we have not got to it, and nothing more than that. The checker still gives you an answer from the national and state records, labelled as such. If you want the real thing, send us your zip code and we will look up your specific agencies by hand and reply — including if the answer is that a scanner is not worth buying where you live.

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