Police Scanner Laws in Arkansas (2026): Is It Legal?

The law in Arkansas

There are no state statutes restricting the ownership, use, or mobile operation of a police scanner in Arkansas. Scanners may be used in vehicles, in public, and in any legal context.

Enforcement reality

No enforcement history. Scanner use is fully protected.

What you can monitor in Arkansas

With a police scanner in Arkansas, you can legally listen to any unencrypted public safety channel, including:

• Fire department dispatch and operations
• EMS and ambulance communications
• NOAA weather alerts and emergency broadcasts
• Unencrypted police channels (where available)

In practice, of the 246 talkgroups catalogued across Arkansas in our database, 171 are recorded as being in the clear and 64 as encrypted.

The radio systems most often recorded in Arkansas are Arkansas Wireless Information Network (AWIN), Arkansas Brandmeister DMR, Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks, Blytheville Public Safety (AR).

Before buying a scanner, check whether your local agencies in Arkansas have encrypted their communications. If they have, your scanner won't be able to receive their transmissions regardless of legal status.

What's already encrypted in Arkansas

Scanner use being legal in Arkansas does not mean everything is listenable. Our database currently tracks 42 agencies in Arkansas that encrypt at least some radio traffic, across 25 counties. Of those, 14 encrypt all monitored channels rather than only a few.

The encryption most commonly recorded in Arkansas is DMR Enhanced Privacy (24 agencies), P25 AES-256 (8 agencies), and Analog Voice Inversion (3 agencies).

These records are unverified and may be out of date. Encryption status changes without notice — confirm the current status of any specific agency on RadioReference before relying on it.

Frequently asked questions