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

The law in New Jersey

New Jersey has no permit requirement and no ban on owning or using a police scanner, including in a vehicle. The state's one scanner-specific statute, N.J.S.A. 2C:33-22, makes it a fourth-degree crime to possess or control a radio capable of receiving any message on a police, fire, or emergency medical communications system while committing or attempting to commit a crime, including the immediate flight from it. Outside that criminal context, scanner listening remains legal in vehicles, in public, and at home.

Enforcement reality

No enforcement history. Scanner use is fully protected.

What you can monitor in New Jersey

With a police scanner in New Jersey, 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 613 talkgroups catalogued across New Jersey in our database, 382 are recorded as being in the clear and 225 as encrypted.

The radio systems most often recorded in New Jersey are United States Department of Defense (14C), Monmouth County Public Safety, New Jersey Interoperability Communications System (NJICS), OneVoice Network, Atlantic County, Exelon Energy P25.

Before buying a scanner, check whether your local agencies in New Jersey 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 New Jersey

Scanner use being legal in New Jersey does not mean everything is listenable. Our database currently tracks 162 agencies in New Jersey that encrypt at least some radio traffic, across 19 counties. Of those, 105 encrypt all monitored channels rather than only a few.

The encryption most commonly recorded in New Jersey is P25 AES-256 (151 agencies), P25 ADP (8 agencies), and P25 DES-OFB (2 agencies).

82 of these 162 records have been verified against RadioReference system data; the remainder are unverified and may be out of date.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