does anyone think that police departments that let people listen to the scanner because they know people are listening? ( conspiracy )

submitted by Anson

this would work if the people who were listening thought they didn't know someone was listening for them listening

drakesdoom

They already have encrypted channels for important stuff. They don't care if you listen in on general dispatch anymore.

Anson

was it ever used as I'm saying?

and if so, are they still doing that?

drakesdoom

Not really, listening to a ready is passive. Unless you said something you could listen all you want and they would never know.

Anson

they know how many people are listening to a radio station at once, why wouldn't they know about the police scanner?

drakesdoom

Those numbers are projected based on surveys and I would imagine some radios reporting back like cable boxes. A traditional radio gives no indication that it is listening to any particular band.

Anson

I've wondered how they'd track that. Is there a clever way to send a signal back to the source? I imagine there's no easy way to measure the outgoing wave in a noninvasive way

drakesdoom

For a modern radio in a car there are so many possible ways to send info back. None of them are clever just extra electronics that you are unaware of inside the car, basically a bug.

If you were to build a simple radio receiver there is no way to find that.