I live in a large city and listen to the police scanner sometimes. The back and forth seems very orderly considering there are thousands of police and crimes happening everywhere.
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There is different channels, they can be reserved for specific activities and there are open channels like the one you listen to that are for general communication between the police and their department dispatcher.
They are trained to keep coms clear and only communicate required information. Multiple squad cars can communicate directly to each other using a different radio.
If something is communicated in a pinch they can use codes to let people know something important. Each department has their own set of codes and the meanings are anything from a “shots fired” to a “I’m headed to lunch”.
It’s not uncommon to hear cars talk to each other normally though.
You can search up “police 10 codes” on Google and put your city name in it and I’m sure you’ll be able to learn some and understand some more things when listening to the scanner.
Alternatively, if your a gamer you can find some cool roleplay games and you’ll learn alot.
*edit typos and formatting.
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