15 Best Police Scanner Apps For iPhone You Need to Try

A police scanner app can help you stay updated on the goings on around your neighborhood.

Whether you’re wondering what the sirens are for, or if there is constant helicopter traffic over your area, this type of app can help you out by providing you with up-to-date emergency and local news.

Some of the best ones even come with a fire department and weather radio, as well. These features come in handy when you’re heading up somewhere so you can learn about weather conditions and stay on top of any public safety announcements.

Let’s discuss about these apps in detail now. I will also share some of the other apps, just in case you don’t find these good for one or the other reason.

Best Police Scanner Apps For iPhone That You Should Know About

1. 5-0 Radio Police Scanner

This police scanner gives you access to a wide range of emergency news so you always know what’s happening around you.

It’s a free iOS app with an active feed and alert features to help you avoid unexpected surprises while you’re out and about.

You’ll stay updated with all the latest activity that’s happening in your local area and receive breaking news instantly.

Once you sign into the app, you get a wide range of live emergency news covering everything from crime and fire to aircraft, railroad, natural disasters, and more.

One of the best features of this app is that it’s not just limited to specific cities or states. It has global coverage, which means you can hear news from any county in the US and around the world.

You can create custom feeds according to your preference and share them with your family and friends.

The app also has an integrated map that shows you the latest news according to your current location. The best part is, the app runs in the background so it won’t interfere with any other operations on your iPhone.

2. iScan – Radio Scanner

The iScan Radio Scanner app is free to download and comes with over 28,000 scanners to listen to emergency news all around you and the world at large.

From public safety and talk radio to live podcasts and top hits – you’ll find all the stations you like here.

The app also has a handy guide for all the different number codes that emergency personnel use. This way, you can stay in the loop while listening to whatever is going on out there.

This scanner radio not only lets you listen to police and fire scanners, but you can also use it to listen to amateur radio repeaters, as well. You can sort all these stations by distance and set alerts to be notified whenever new scanners are added nearby.

Add custom feeds and categorize all your favorite streams by different types, such as music, public safety, live podcasts, and so on.

I especially love the iCloud syncing feature which lets you sync all your streams to your device. There’s also an AirPlay feature that you can use to play your streams on any wireless device.

3. Police Scanner Radio & Fire

This app is one of the best free emergency scanner apps for the iPhone. It has a clean, modern interface that makes navigation easy and provides you with breaking news alerts so you never miss any live emergency announcements.

One of the main benefits of using the Police Scanner Radio & Fire scanner is that it shows the nearest scanners to your location.

I also love that you can see the most popular scanners near you, and you can browse through dozens of scanners by location and genre. This makes it easy for you to get news that is relevant to you and your particular location.

This app has worldwide coverage and can be integrated into your car play. When you’re on the go, simply turn on the notifications, and the app works in the background to offer you real-time alerts whenever there is relevant news.

You can download the app for free from the App Store. The developers of the app are constantly making improvements and the latest update includes a feature that lets you clip interesting audio so you can share it with your family, friends, and colleagues.

4. Broadcastify

This app from RadiReference.com LLC is among the best police scanner apps for iPhone – and with good reason.

It has a sleek and stylish user interface with a high-quality retina display. It’s designed for iPad and is compatible with iPhones as well. It’s one of the most lightweight apps on this list, taking up a mere 11 MB of storage space.

Download the app for free and use it to listen to over 7,000 police and first-responder radio streams. Customize your feed to catch the stations you want. Get full access to all the features of the apps, including the ability to show feeds near your location, search by location or name, and create a favorites list.

Broadcastify gives you accurate, real-time stats for each stream. You also get push notifications for any major incidents in your local area so you know you’ll never miss any important news.

One thing I really like about this app is that it has no ads or popups, which means you get uninterrupted listening.

Like most other apps on this list, the developers of Broadcastify are constantly making improvements to the app. The latest version comes with a fixed iPad orientation feature for the feed player.

5. Police Scanner +

iPad users may prefer this police scanner as it is optimized specifically for iPads. With it, you’ll be able to stay updated on breaking news that’s going on locally around you and in the world.

You can set your preferences to receive relevant alerts and set an alert whenever your favorite station has updates.

With over 10,000 stations, this is the Swiss Army Knife of police scanners. In fact, it’s arguably the largest collection of stations, including police, EMS, fire, airport, railroad, and weather. There are even comedy and music stations – all available for free.

A unique feature of this app is that it lets you record your favorite stations for future playback. You can also email those recordings to yourself. This way, you have the peace of mind of knowing you’ll never miss any important news no matter where you are.

Another awesome feature of the Police Scanner + app is that you can change the background on your iPhone’s library. You can also add custom radio frequencies to find desired stations near you using your GPS. This app is free to download and use, although there are some in-app purchases.

6. Action Scanner Radio Pro

The Action Scanner Radio Pro provides you with all the emergency information you need to stay updated. This includes police, fire, and rescue.

Stay tuned with over 6,000 feeds worldwide and set custom feeds so you get relevant alerts to your phone.

The app easily runs in the background and doesn’t mess with your other phone operations. It lets you scan up to six stations simultaneously to find the most relevant scanner.

This is a global scanner, which means you can get all the latest news by country, state, or city. You can even organize your feed to make it easier for you to quickly switch between your favorite collections.

An awesome feature of this top-of-the-line app is the sleep timer that you’ll appreciate if you regularly use the app to fall asleep to the gentle sounds of police sirens, frenzied chatter, and other police actions.

You can configure the sleep timer by setting a time ranging from five minutes to three hours after which the app will automatically switch off.

7. Police Scanner, Fire Radio

This mobile iOS app lets you listen to breaking news, crime news, fire, and weather from one place. It’s a convenient scanner app for anyone who likes to keep on top of the daily happenings around them.

You can listen to live breaking news on all police actions, as well as local emergency news, public safety alerts, and more.

From Chicago Police Zone 10 to Greene County Sheriff and Fire, and every station in between – you can use keywords to filter the most listened-to scanners and save feeds according to your preferences and save your favorites with one click.

You’ll get real-time statistics thanks to the newest alert widget that lets you listen to live feeds. If you’re anything like me, you even like to listen to stations from neighboring states when nothing interesting is happening around you. This app will let you do that with ease.

The latest update fixed quite a few bugs and performance issues, and now this app works seamlessly on iOS devices. Join millions of other users worldwide and start getting instant alerts for all emergency news.

8. Police Scanner: Local News

With this live radio and cop radar app, you have access to live police, fire, marine, and emergency channels. It has a massive base of scanner radio communication streams and you can listen to the feeds on these and other radios while running other apps simultaneously.

If you close the app from your screen, it continues to run in the background. If you lose your connection, this app automatically reconnects so you don’t miss a beat.

With this local news app, you’ll be the first to know whatever’s going on in your area. Track crime, fire alarms, police radio, and all other breaking news so you’re always on top of things in your own street and all around your city.

You can even use the app to save time and avoid unnecessary delays by checking traffic congestion on your route in real time.

This app is particularly easy to use, and when you’re on the move, you can filter scanners by city or state. It’s also easy to switch the scanner to your next location with just a few clicks.

9. Scanner Radio +

This is another reliable mobile app that made it to the list of the best police scanner apps for iPhone thanks to its easy-to-use interface and convenient features.

For example, it gives you access to the top 100 live feeds from all over the world and you can customize your feed according to what you want to hear. You can also use the app to explore maps to discover other feeds near your location.

Sign-up for a free trial to test out the app, and if you think it’s a great fit, you can upgrade to the paid subscription to unlock advanced features, such as the ability to search and save your favorite feeds.

Created by Sepia Software LLC, this app is also compatible with iPad as well as iPhone. It runs in the background all day to provide you with instant notifications whenever something newsworthy is taking place around you.

The fact that the feeds run in the background is a huge plus as it means that you can use other applications without any problems. I don’t know about you, but I use my phone constantly, and the last thing I want is an app (no matter how important) to mess with my daily operations.

You can even use the app to geek out over all police-related news in neighboring states. Occasionally, ads pop up, which can be a bit annoying for some, but you can easily remove them by upgrading to the paid version of the app.

10. Police Scanner App, Live Radio

This breaking news, cop, and fire alarm app is one of the most downloaded online streaming scanners currently available.

It has features to help you stay updated with all the latest news and lets you discover everything from local news, public safety announcements, crime, terrorism, and any other major events that may be taking place around you.

A feature that differentiates this app from others on this list is that it comes with three separate sections, including local, top 100, and custom feeds.

You can browse through relevant stations from all over the world to find the news that’s relevant to you. There’s even a popularity meter that lets you check out how well-liked each feed is.

This app also provides you with free live audio streaming, and if you lose your connection, it automatically reconnects to your current station. The background streaming feature makes for an easy multitasking experience.

All in all, this is a feature-rich app that comes with a beautiful interface and a fun, ad-free user experience.

11. Police + Fire Scanner Radio USA

The Police + Fire Scanner Radio USA app gives you local breaking news and alerts. It allows you to learn everything that’s going on locally and in the world around you. You get local live police radio and fire alarms, as well as air traffic, railroad, and other emergency updates.

Get instant alerts to ensure that you never miss breaking news even when you’re not actively using the app.

You can locate scanners in your area and search feeds by relevant keywords. View the top 50 most popular scanners and customize your feed according to your requirements. You can also display a list of all the most recently added stations and see the ones with the most listeners.

Download the free iPhone app to start listening, and sort out your favorite stations according to popularity. The wildfire map and marine radios are great additions that send instant alerts relative to where you are in the country.

This app is free, and if you want to unlock more features, you can upgrade to the paid plan. There’s a free trial subscription so you can test out the premium version to see if it’s right for you before putting up your hard-earned dollars.

12. Police Live Radio Scanners

This police live radio scanner from Nina Maibach lets you listen to the best police feeds from all around the world. It’s among the most updated scanners with a wide range of stations available.

The app has an easy-to-use interface, and you can easily access exclusive feeds and even request new ones to be added.

Some of the key features include online listening, HQ sound, and HD animations. The app runs in the background, which means you can still do other stuff on your phone while listening to the latest news from the police, fire, EMS, NOAA radar, airport, railroad, and other streams.

This is a fast-loading app that requires no registration. It’s iPad-ready, and you can start listening to your favorite streams as soon as you sign up.

13. Good Police Scanner

This mobile app is compatible with both iPad and iPhone and allows you to listen to live broadcasts from your local police, fire, and emergency streams.

Use it to get real-time broadcasts from across the world. You get instant audio feeds for all the latest news and events, and there’s also a map view that shows you the location of various radio stations. This makes it that much easier to find and connect to local channels.

This freemium app offers all of these features on the free version, but you can unlock even more functionality by signing up for the paid plan.

This includes unlimited access to all the features, as well as unlimited usage. The longer the period you sign up for, the less you’ll pay per month.

The latest version of the app sports an improved user interface and more stringent privacy practices to better protect your information, such as financial information, usage data, and identifiers.

If security and privacy are important factors for you, then this app is a great option for you to consider.

14. PRS – Police Radio Scanner

The police radio scanner app from Mobixoft LLC is the perfect way to stay informed with real-time news from your local police and emergency channels.

The app lets you listen in on broadcasts from police, fire, and EMS streams in your area. It has a simple, modern interface that makes it easy for you to search for the channels you want.

Set alerts for your chosen streams so you never miss any breaking news or critical updates. There are built-in codes and phonetic alphabet information to make it easier for you to decrypt police, fire, EMS, and military codes so you always understand what’s happening around you.

One of the most prominent features of this app is CarPlay support. There’s also AirPlay support which lets you stream to any wireless device.

You can listen to your favorite feeds in the background while running other apps on your phone. Media controls on your device allow you to easily pause the feeds whenever you need to, and if you accidentally lose the connection, the app automatically reconnects the feed for your convenience.

15. Police Scanner Radio + Fire

This is yet another great app that will keep you updated on all major news events in real time. It lets you find feeds (both locally and globally) based on popularity so you can get all the live-breaking action you can handle in the palm of your hand.

Download the app for free to listen to everything from crime and wildfire news to protests, riots, and emergencies. There are over 7,000 police, fire, marine, and air traffic scanners to choose from.

You can listen in the background while running other apps. Record live action and share the audio clip with others.

There’s also a sleep timer so the app can turn itself off when you’re done listening for the day. All in all, this is an impressive app that will keep you updated on rapidly changing situations worldwide.

Conclusion: Take Control of Your Safety with the Top Police Scanner Apps for iPhone

That’s it from me. You now have all the information you need to help you choose the best police scanner apps for your iPhone.

Use the information in this guide to determine the types of features you want in an app and then make the right choice to help you stay tuned to ongoing emergency news.

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