Listening To Police Radio
Penal Code 636.5 — intercepting police radio to help commit a crime or to avoid arrest
California's Penal Code addresses listening to police radio in section 636.5. It makes it a misdemeanor for a person not authorized by the sender to intercept a public safety radio service communication, by use of a scanner or any other means, for the purpose of using that communication to assist in the commission of a criminal offense or to avoid or escape arrest, trial, conviction, or punishment.
Passing it on to a suspect is in the same section. The section also reaches a person who tells someone they know to be a suspect in a criminal offense what a communication about that offense said, its existence, contents, substance or meaning, with the intent that the suspect may avoid or escape arrest, trial, conviction, or punishment.
A public safety radio service communication, as the section uses the phrase, is a communication authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to be transmitted by a station in the public safety radio service. The section adds that nothing in it precludes prosecution under Section 31 or 32.
This is the section, not an assessment. What the purpose of any particular listening was, and whether some other law, a local rule or federal law reaches a situation, are questions this section does not answer. A licensed California attorney is who answers them.
Sources for this section (1)
- Penal Code 636.5 — Intercepting public safety radio to assist a crime or avoid arrest
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed California attorney.