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

The law in Nebraska

Police scanners are legal to own and listen to in Nebraska, including as a hobbyist, but the state does regulate certain uses. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1312 ("Interfering with the police radio system"), it is a Class I misdemeanor to possess, or to equip or install in or on any motor vehicle, a police radio set that (a) intentionally interferes with the transmission or reception of radio messages by a law enforcement agency, (b) intercepts radio signals to evade or assist others in evading arrest, or (c) results in use of the communication for monetary or personal gain. The statute exempts peace officers, anyone holding written permission from the head of a law enforcement agency, and licensed news media monitoring for news purposes only. Equipment used in violation may be seized and, upon conviction, destroyed or forfeited to the State of Nebraska. Ordinary scanner listening — including in a vehicle — is not prohibited so long as none of these unlawful purposes applies. Note: some secondary guides miscite this law as § 28-515, which is actually Nebraska's theft-of-services statute; the correct citation is § 28-1312.

Enforcement reality

No enforcement history. Scanner use is fully protected.

What you can monitor in Nebraska

With a police scanner in Nebraska, 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 113 talkgroups catalogued across Nebraska in our database, 74 are recorded as being in the clear and 31 as encrypted.

The radio systems most often recorded in Nebraska are Ralston Arena, Nebraska State Radio System, Omaha Regional Interoperability Network (ORION), Lancaster County.

Before buying a scanner, check whether your local agencies in Nebraska 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 Nebraska

Scanner use being legal in Nebraska does not mean everything is listenable. Our database currently tracks 49 agencies in Nebraska that encrypt at least some radio traffic, across 26 counties. Of those, 7 encrypt all monitored channels rather than only a few.

The encryption most commonly recorded in Nebraska is P25 AES-256 (41 agencies), P25 AES (5 agencies), and DMR Enhanced Privacy (3 agencies).

3 of these 49 records have been verified against RadioReference system data; the remainder 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