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You can listen to Detroit police, fire, and EMS radio live without buying a scanner. Detroit Police dispatch, the Detroit Fire Department, and a number of surrounding Wayne County agencies are available as live feeds, and the easiest way to hear them is the Scanner Radio app on your phone. This article covers which Detroit agencies have feeds, what you will hear on them, and how to get set up.
The Detroit Police Department is the largest police department in Michigan. The city is divided into precincts numbered 2 through 12, and downtown is handled by a command called Downtown Services. There is no 1st Precinct. Radio dispatch does not follow the precinct map exactly. Officers work district dispatch channels that each cover two precincts, plus a citywide channel used for special events.
Detroit's radio traffic runs on the Michigan Public Safety Communications System, the statewide 800 MHz digital trunked network. If you were planning to buy a scanner, that is the part that gets expensive. You would need a digital trunking scanner and would have to program it for the system. A live feed takes care of that for you. The Detroit Police Dispatch feed combines the main district dispatch channels into one stream, so you hear calls from across the city without having to choose a district.
Detroit Police Dispatch
Wayne County, Michigan
Most of what you hear on this feed is dispatchers assigning runs, officers reporting on scene and clearing, requests for backup or EMS, and traffic stops. Detroit uses a mix of radio codes and plain language. If the shorthand is new to you, our guide to police scanner codes covers the common ones, and how emergency dispatch works explains why calls come out in the order they do.
The Detroit Fire Department handles fire suppression and also runs the city's EMS division, so fire and medical runs come from the same agency. Detroit Fire is on Scanner Radio as its own feed, and there is a separate Detroit EMS Dispatch feed as well. During a working fire or a serious crash, police and fire dispatch carry different parts of the same incident, so it is worth having both.
Two things trip up new Detroit listeners. Hamtramck and Highland Park are separate cities completely surrounded by Detroit, each with its own police department and its own dispatch. A call a few blocks from a Detroit unit can belong to one of them and never show up on the Detroit feed. Belle Isle is a Michigan state park, and it is patrolled by Michigan State Police troopers and DNR conservation officers rather than Detroit police.
Outside the city, Scanner Radio has feeds for Dearborn, the Grosse Pointes and Harper Woods, the Downriver communities, and the Plymouth and Northville area, along with a Wayne County Public Safety feed. Search "Detroit" or "Wayne County" in the app to see the current list, since feeds are added and dropped over time. If you are farther south on I-75, our Toledo scanner guide covers Lucas County, Ohio.
Download Scanner Radio, which is free on iOS and Android, then open the Detroit Police Dispatch feed from the button above or search "Detroit" in the app and press play. There is nothing to program and no antenna to set up.
If you mostly want to know when something big is happening in Detroit, you do not have to keep a feed running all day. Scanner Radio surfaces headlines when there is major activity such as a shooting, a large fire, or a serious crash, and you can turn on notifications so they reach you. You can also be notified when the listener count on a feed jumps suddenly. A spike does not confirm anything on its own, but it usually means people who follow that feed heard something worth checking.
Listeners can also tag a live feed with the type of event in progress, such as a building fire or a police shooting, so when you open the Detroit feed during a busy stretch you can see what other listeners think is going on. If you cannot play audio where you are, live transcription lets you read the radio traffic instead. Clips are short pieces of scanner audio that other listeners saved from live feeds. The app collects them in a scrollable feed, which is a good way to hear the more interesting moments from Detroit and elsewhere without sitting on a live feed for hours.
Download the Scanner Radio app, search for Detroit, and pick a feed. Detroit Police Dispatch and Detroit Fire are the two main ones.
Yes. Listening to public safety radio is legal in Michigan and throughout the United States. The main restriction is that you cannot use a scanner to help commit a crime.
No. Detroit's radio system is digital and trunked, so a scanner that could receive it costs several hundred dollars and has to be programmed for the system. The Scanner Radio app plays the same dispatch traffic on your phone with nothing to set up.
Start with the Detroit Police Dispatch feed. It combines the department's main district dispatch channels into a single stream, so you hear calls from across the city. Add Detroit Fire if you also want fire and EMS traffic.
Twelve. Precincts are numbered 2 through 12, and downtown is covered by a command called Downtown Services rather than a 1st Precinct. On the radio, officers work district dispatch channels that each cover two precincts, plus a citywide channel for special events.
Yes. Scanner Radio is free to download on iOS and Android, and the Detroit feeds stream at no cost.
Listening from somewhere else? Swipe through our other city guides.
