Is Police Radio Encrypted in My Area?
A plain-English, city-by-city status check for 2026 — built from live radio traffic and local reporting, not from frequency tables that went stale two years ago.
Short answer: it depends entirely on your city, and the honest picture is more mixed than either side of the argument suggests. Police radio encryption has spread fast — Boston went dark in August 2025, Minneapolis in April 2025, Boise in November 2024. But some of the largest cities in the country are still wide open, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Seattle, Charlotte and Indianapolis. Below is where things actually stand.
What encryption means, in one paragraph
Modern police radios are digital. Encryption scrambles those digital transmissions with a key held only by the agency’s own radios. On a scanner an encrypted channel shows as activity but produces silence or a brief digital rasp. No scanner decodes it, no antenna fixes it and no firmware update unlocks it — a device that could would be illegal to sell in the United States. So the only question that matters before you buy is whether the agencies near you have encrypted. That is the question this page answers.
Still open — police dispatch is receivable
Verified August 2026. Where a caveat matters, it’s stated.
| Area |
Status and caveats |
| Los Angeles, CA |
LAPD division dispatch and L.A. County Sheriff patrol are both unencrypted. Many independent cities inside the county — Pasadena, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and much of the South Bay — are not. |
| Phoenix, AZ |
Phoenix PD precinct dispatch is open on the Regional Wireless Cooperative. Mesa, Scottsdale, Peoria, Goodyear and Queen Creek have encrypted; Tempe has not. |
| Seattle, WA |
Seattle PD encrypted tactical channels in 2026 but deliberately kept standard precinct dispatch open, citing transparency. King County Sheriff is open; suburbs vary. |
| Charlotte, NC |
CMPD dispatches by division in the clear. SWAT and per-division tactical are encrypted, and patrol has been moved to encrypted channels temporarily during a handful of major incidents. |
| Indianapolis, IN |
IMPD district dispatch is open on the county system — one of the most-listened police feeds in the country. Tactical and covert channels are encrypted. |
| Columbus, OH |
CPD zone dispatch is open on Ohio's MARCS network. The Ohio State Highway Patrol has been encrypted statewide since 2019. |
| Tampa, FL |
Tampa PD and all five Hillsborough County Sheriff district channels remain in the clear — increasingly unusual for Florida. |
| Suffolk County, NY |
All seven Suffolk County Police precincts, command and car-to-car are unencrypted. Nassau County next door is a separate system. |
| Pittsburgh, PA |
Still analog and still open. The three main dispatch channels covering Zones 1 through 6 were deliberately left in the clear when tactical channels were encrypted. |
| Birmingham, AL |
All four Birmingham PD precinct dispatch channels are open on the state AIRS network, as is the Jefferson County Sheriff. Older forum posts claiming otherwise predate the system change. |
| Toledo, OH |
Toledo PD central and south dispatch are both open on MARCS, with two independent public feeds running. Partial encryption from 2022 covers tactical only. |
| Des Moines, IA |
Des Moines PD primary dispatch is open, as is the Polk County Sheriff. Requires a P25 Phase II scanner — an older Phase I model will miss traffic. |
| Spokane, WA |
Spokane PD's remaining channels and the county Sheriff are open; the Sheriff has publicly opposed encryption. SPD has floated closing its last two open channels — no decision made. |
| Reno & Sparks, NV |
Reno and Sparks police are both unencrypted on the Nevada Shared Radio System. Phase II capable scanner required. |
| Rochester, NY |
Rochester PD east and west dispatch are open on the Monroe County trunked system. The old UHF frequencies still listed in many guides are decommissioned and silent. |
| Hartford, CT |
Hartford PD moved to a new P25 system in May 2026 — a system change, not an encryption event. Patrol and hotline channels are open. Manchester, New Britain, Bristol and Avon are encrypted. |
| New Haven, CT |
New Haven PD north and south patrol are unencrypted analog — an inexpensive scanner still works here. |
| Greenville, SC |
Greenville city police and the county Sheriff's three district dispatches are open on Palmetto 800. Note: the widely-shared 2025 encryption story is Greenville, North Carolina, a different city. |
| Madison, WI |
Madison PD dispatch channels are unencrypted; roughly ten tactical talkgroups are not. The city and the surrounding county run two different systems, so both need programming. |
| Travis County, TX |
The Travis County Sheriff, constables and the suburban departments are open. Austin PD itself is encrypted. |
| El Paso County, CO |
The El Paso County Sheriff is open and dispatches for five additional agencies. Colorado Springs PD encrypted in February 2021. |
Police encrypted — but not necessarily silent
City police are gone in these markets. What’s written in italics is what still works.
| Area |
What happened, and what remains |
| Nashville, TN |
Police encrypted in 2019 and the fire department followed in 2021. There is effectively no local public-safety audio left. |
| Lexington, KY |
Police and fire are both encrypted on the merged urban-county system. Nothing meaningful remains open. |
| Boston, MA |
Boston PD encrypted in August 2025. Boston Fire and Boston EMS are still open, along with Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop.
|
| Chicago, IL |
CPD completed a zone-by-zone encryption rollout that began in 2023. The official streams are delayed and edited. Chicago Fire and EMS dispatch remain in the clear.
|
| Minneapolis, MN |
Encrypted in April 2025. St. Paul and Ramsey County have followed. Some suburban fire departments remain open.
|
| Portland, OR |
Portland Police encrypted after 2020; the Multnomah County Sheriff followed in June 2024. Portland Fire & Rescue dispatch and operations channels are open.
|
| San Antonio, TX |
San Antonio PD and the Bexar County Sheriff both encrypted. Fire and EMS remain open, as does Texas DPS.
|
| Boise, ID |
Boise PD and the Ada County Sheriff encrypted on 19 November 2024. Some published feed descriptions are stale and still list police channels. Ada County fire and EMS are open.
|
| Knoxville, TN |
Both the police department and the Knox County Sheriff encrypted in 2018. Knoxville Fire, Rural Metro and the ambulance services are open.
|
| Jacksonville, FL |
The Sheriff's Office was the first local government in Florida to encrypt routine dispatch. Jacksonville Fire and Rescue, including EMS, is open.
|
| Orlando, FL |
Orlando PD and the Orange County Sheriff are encrypted, apart from one tourist-corridor talkgroup. Orlando Fire and Orange County Fire Rescue are open.
|
| Grand Rapids, MI |
Grand Rapids PD and the Kent County Sheriff are encrypted, as are Ottawa and Allegan counties. Kent County fire and ambulance services are open.
|
| Fort Wayne, IN |
Fort Wayne PD and the Allen County Sheriff have been encrypted for years. Allen County fire dispatch and operations are open.
|
| Newark, NJ |
Newark PD moved to an encrypted 700 MHz system and shut off the old UHF channels in December 2025. Newark and Essex County fire and mutual aid are open for now.
|
| Colorado Springs, CO |
Colorado Springs PD encrypted in February 2021 without advance notice. The El Paso County Sheriff, city fire and county fire are all open.
|
| Austin, TX |
Austin PD encrypted, and Austin Fire and ATCEMS moved onto the encrypted system. The Travis County Sheriff and the suburban departments are open.
|
| Allentown, PA |
Every Allentown city police talkgroup is encrypted. Lehigh County's suburban police run in analog VHF in the clear, as do county fire and EMS.
|
| Providence, RI |
Most Providence PD channels are encrypted; only the primary dispatch talkgroup is listed clear and there is no working public feed. Providence Fire is open, as is Rhode Island State Police dispatch.
|
Changing right now
Markets we are watching and will not make promises about.
| Area |
Situation |
| Cincinnati, OH |
An encryption move is in progress. Agencies were being reprogrammed with secure channels through mid-2026 and the main public police feed has already gone offline. We are not selling Cincinnati as a police market until this settles. |
| Spokane, WA |
Spokane PD has proposed encrypting its last two open channels. No decision has been made, and it would not affect the county Sheriff. |
| Skagit County, WA |
Mount Vernon and the county completed encryption in July 2026. We pulled a planned Mount Vernon page because of it. |
| Seattle suburbs, WA |
King County encrypts agency by agency. Bothell went dark in early 2026 and other cities are considering it, so suburb coverage needs checking address by address. |
If your city has encrypted, here’s what still works
Encryption is decided department by department, not city-wide and never nationally. That is why an encrypted police department rarely means a silent scanner.
Fire and EMS
Almost always still open, because mutual aid depends on it. In most encrypted cities this is the busiest traffic left.
The county sheriff
Sheriffs frequently stay in the clear after a city department encrypts — and they often dispatch for several smaller towns too.
State police & highway patrol
Open in many states. Not all: Pennsylvania, Ohio and a few others encrypted statewide years ago.
Neighbouring towns
Encryption is decided department by department. The town twenty minutes away is often wide open.
How we check. We don’t rely on published frequency lists — they go stale within months of an encryption decision and are the single biggest source of bad advice online. We check whether a given agency’s dispatch is actually being decoded right now, and we read local news, because encryption is almost always announced locally and almost never anywhere else. When the two disagree, the live audio wins. If we can’t confirm a market, we don’t sell it.
Check your own address in seconds
This page covers the largest markets. There are roughly eighteen thousand police agencies in the United States, and yours may well not be on the list. Tell us where you live and we’ll tell you exactly what is receivable at that address — including the awkward answer, if that’s the true one. If it’s worth buying a scanner, we’ll program it for your address before it ships. If it isn’t, we’ll say so.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find out if police radio is encrypted where I live?
The fastest honest answer is to ask us — put your address into our free coverage check and we'll tell you exactly which agencies near you are receivable and which have gone dark. If you'd rather look it up yourself, the most reliable signal is whether a live public feed of that agency's dispatch exists and is actually running. Published frequency tables go stale within months of an encryption move; live audio does not lie.
What does police radio encryption actually mean?
It means the agency scrambles its digital radio traffic with a key that only its own radios have. An encrypted transmission still shows up on a scanner as activity, but it comes through as silence or a short digital noise. There is no setting, antenna, upgrade or model of scanner that decodes it — a scanner that could would be illegal to sell.
If my city's police are encrypted, is a scanner still worth buying?
Often yes, and this is the part most sites won't tell you. Fire and EMS usually stay open even when police encrypt, because paramedics and firefighters need to talk to mutual-aid partners on other systems. County sheriffs frequently stay open after a city department closes. State police, highway patrol, aviation, rail and weather are all still there. In Boston, Chicago, Portland and Jacksonville there is a great deal of live traffic — just not city police.
Why do fire and EMS usually stay unencrypted?
Interoperability. A structure fire pulls in engines from neighbouring towns, and mutual aid only works if everyone can hear everyone. Encrypting a fire ground creates a genuine safety problem, so most departments don't. The exceptions exist — Nashville encrypted its fire department in 2021 and Lexington's is encrypted too — but they remain unusual.
Is it legal to own and listen to a police scanner?
Yes, in every US state. Listening to public-safety radio is legal. What is restricted is using a scanner while committing a crime — every state prohibits that — and a small number of states, including New York and Minnesota, restrict mobile scanner use in a vehicle for certain people. Listening at home is legal everywhere.
How current is this list?
It reflects checks made in August 2026. Encryption decisions move fast and are usually announced with little or no notice — Colorado Springs gave none at all. We re-verify before we publish anything for a market, and we won't sell you a scanner for an area we can't confirm. If your city isn't listed here, run the free coverage check and we'll look it up for you.
Photo: Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Status information verified August 2026.
