10
May
2009
Keeping an ear on the police
Back when I was in school, I’d have to wait an hour or so before being collected by one of my parents on the way home from work. I’d usually spend the time hanging about with what friends would loiter a bit longer after school, but occasionally I’d go find an empty classroom and get some work done.
There was one chap, a right arsehole if truth be told, who’d come around occasionally, listening to the cops and other emergency services on his radio scanner. I’d always wanted to get one, but they were prohibitively expensive, and, anyhow, at the time I lived in the middle of nowhere, so it wouldn’t have served much use.
Now, thanks to the wonders of the internet, I can finally live out these past dreams. On scanamerica.us you can listen in on the emergency services in some counties of some states.
Apparently there’s a middle-aged, white male, dressed in a grey sweatshirt, standing on an overpass somewhere in Cook County, Illinois, with a huge sign that says “KILLING”.
Neat.
I have to say I was that annoying guy. Except the scanner I had wasn’t prohibitively expensive, it was about 20 quid from Argos…
Like you I lived in the middle of nowhere though so indeed it wasn’t very exciting. I wish I still had it. To hear voices, particularly those of airplane pilots, drifting in from beyond the void… was creepily exciting. Especially, even, when you couldn’t understand what the fuck they were going on about. I say particularly airplane pilots because they had a way of speaking that was especially cryptic, sort of like the voices of the Conet Project (to a young boy at least).
The concept of this site is brilliant.. I’m going to have a listen now.
Listening to Cook County Illinois now again, there are some cops doing a steak-out or something, they’re all whispering to eachother.
It’s really very frightening
2 things:
1) lol@”steak-out”. i’m terribly hungry. and still a meat-eater, but i would like to get some recipes from you, Jon, if that’s alright.
2) why are we still up at 3:20am?