Scanner Laws in the US

The police have legal authority to search the areas in your considered to be under your control during a stop to secure the environment...ie protect them from having a gun pulled out on them. No warrant is required, it is considered a reasonable search. If, in the course of the search, items in plain sight include your scanner, then it may be seized. If the scanner software on your phone/tablet/laptop isn't up and running, an officer likely would need a warrant to go through your phone, &al. But then again, I'm not an attorney, and these sorts of things get tangled up and blue really quickly.

The doctrine of exigent circumstances basically says that if such probable cause exists that a judge coming upon the scene would go "here's your warrant" they can search away. A number of jurisdictions have electronic means to do the trick.

Let's be careful out there!
 
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Karen St John said:
The police have legal authoruty to search the areas in your considered to be under your control during a stop to secure the environment...ie protect them from having a gun pulled out on them. No warrant is required, it is considered a reasonable search. If, in the course of the search, items in plain sight include your scanner, then it may be siezed. If the scanner software on your phone/tablet/laptop isn't up and running, an officer likely would need a warrant to go through your phone, &al. But then again, I'm not an attorney, and these sorts of things get tangled up and blue really quickly.



The doctrine of exigent circumstances basically says that if such probable cause exists that a judge coming upon the scene would go "here's your warrant" they can search away. A number of jurisdictions have electronic means to do the trick.

Let's be careful out there!
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That kind of thinking has made me money twice from the city of Rogers, Ar.
 
Or you could just take the simple tech test and get a ham license and be done with it. Seems even in the places they are flat out banned, licensed ham radio operators are listed in the exemptions. You can thank the ARRL for that one.
 
Yep, I have my HAM licence and thats the best way. Love that exemption :) . I also do search and rescue in my state so I am exempt anyway
 
If you are not blaring your stereo you probably will not attract this kind of attention. If you are and then they find you have open warrants, I think the scanner app is the least of your worries. The majority of police I know, could care less if you have a scanner in your car or on your phone or tablet, regardless of the law. Most have better things to do.

As far as the Ham exemption goes, use this with common sense and you should be fine.
 
Karen St John said:
The police have legal authority to search the areas in your considered to be under your control during a stop to secure the environment...ie protect them from having a gun pulled out on them. No warrant is required, it is considered a reasonable search. If, in the course of the search, items in plain sight include your scanner, then it may be seized. If the scanner software on your phone/tablet/laptop isn't up and running, an officer likely would need a warrant to go through your phone, &al. But then again, I'm not an attorney, and these sorts of things get tangled up and blue really quickly.

The doctrine of exigent circumstances basically says that if such probable cause exists that a judge coming upon the scene would go "here's your warrant" they can search away. A number of jurisdictions have electronic means to do the trick.

Let's be careful out there!
Click to expand...

Sorry, but this is completely wrong. There is no authority to search anything without your consent unless you are under arrest or they have probable cause. If there is nothing illegal in plain sight viewable from the windows (and your cell phone does not count), then there is no probable cause for them to search. They can ask, and you can (and should) refuse. Refusal to consent does not create the probable cause that they would need to search without consent. If you refuse and they search anyway, the search is illegal and nothing they find can be used against you.
 
Matt Tottle said:
Sorry, but this is completely wrong. There is no authority to search anything without your consent unless you are under arrest or they have probable cause. If there is nothing illegal in plain sight viewable from the windows (and your cell phone does not count), then there is no probable cause for them to search. They can ask, and you can (and should) refuse. Refusal to consent does not create the probable cause that they would need to search without consent. If you refuse and they search anyway, the search is illegal and nothing they find can be used against you.
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Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (2009), was a United States Supreme Court decision holding that the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires law enforcement officers to demonstrate an actual and continuing threat to their safety posed by an arrestee, or a need to preserve evidence related to the crime of arrest from tampering by the arrestee, in order to justify a warrantless vehicular search incident to arrest conducted after the vehicle's recent occupants have been arrested and secured
 
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