Why can police radios transmit over long distances even though the transmitter is very small?

Question

Like a police officer’s handheld radio is able to transmit to another unit let’s say 10 miles away, and he’s able to do that with ease. How is this possible? How come handheld radios that we have access to can’t do that? I know this probably sounds dumb to most of ya’ll but

In: 108

Answer 1

Lots of talk about repeaters and power, but it’s also very likely (in the UK definitely so) that the radios they use actually use the mobile (cell) phone network so when they use the radio it’s like making an instant phone call.

Edit: ignore me, I’m wrong