# 5-0 Radio Police Scanner — Live fire, air & police radio

> Live police, fire, aircraft, and emergency radio scanner app. (iPhone/iPad app by Smartest Apps LLC.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/5-0-radio-police-scanner/id356336433 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Smartest Apps LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/323131781)
- Category: News, Utilities
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.60/5 from 424,878 App Store ratings · 137 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 17+
- Requires: iOS 11.0 · 47 MB
- Languages: Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew and 16 more
- Released: 2010-02-18
- Data updated: 2026-06-10
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/5-0-radio-police-scanner/id356336433/reviews.md

## What is 5?

The largest collection of live police, firefighter, aircraft, railroad, emergency, news, and ham radios. Be the first to know about weather, news, and crime updates.

Thanks to our fans for making 5-0 Radio the #1 most downloaded police scanner app on the market. This app is one of top 100 most downloaded iOS apps since 2009.

Features
======
- New “Feeds with Active Alerts” feature that shows you feeds with interesting on-going activity and breaking news happening right now along with a description of the alert, breaking info, location, and feed.
- Listen to feeds in the background. You can run other apps while listening to the police. Pause the feeds via the media controls on your device.
- Automatically attempts to reconnect the feed if you lose the connection.
- Listen to feeds on your desktop/laptop computer. Email yourself a link to the feed, and open that link on your browser or with your favorite mp3 player.
- Ability to add custom feeds
- Chat with other users
- The web browser also automatically detects feeds and integrates it with the radio. Now you can add feeds from the web by simply tapping on the feed's link via our browser.
- Share feeds with your friends by email. They do not need to buy this app to listen with you. They can listen in with any device that has a web browser.
- Worldwide coverage. Listen to feeds from the United States, Canada, Australia and more. Our app is always expanding and looking for new police radios to tap into.
- List scanners by county. Don't just list all feeds in a state, get only the ones that are from your city/county.
- Integrated map that finds your location and the location of the feed. Now you can find where the action is happening and follow along.
- Built-in police/EMS/fire/military codes and phonetic alphabet for easy interpretation. Good for any beginners who do not have the proper training and have trouble remembering what the codes mean.
- Save your favorites to the front screen of the app for quick one-tap access.
- This app will dynamically grab a new list of sources so that you will always be the first to get any new police feeds out there.
- See the popularity of each feed. Each feed lists the number of listeners who are following the action along with you.
- Choose new skins or make your own. Skins can be any photo you choose from your photos library.
- New police feeds and others are added on an hourly basis, so keep checking if we added yours recently.

Upgrade to 5-0 Radio Pro to remove ads, add even more feeds, and new features.

Legality
======
It is legal in most countries to listen to police feeds. However, it is illegal in some places to use this app to aid in the commission of a crime or to pose as a police officer when you are not. It may also be illegal to use it while driving. Please consult your local laws before using this app outside of your home.

Is it fake?
=======
It's very real. Each feed comes from a person in that region with an expensive police scanner sharing the signal with you via the internet.

Real-time
=======
The delay between the real radio feed and this app is only a few seconds depending on buffering and internet speeds.

Recommendations
==============
Check out our website SmartestApple.com for other great apps from us

Privacy Policy: https://smartestapple.com/privacy

Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

## Key features

- Live police, fire, and aircraft radio feeds
- Feeds with active alerts and breaking news
- Background listening and media controls
- Add custom feeds
- Integrated map with feed locations
- Police/EMS/fire codes and phonetic alphabet
- Worldwide coverage

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 5-0 Radio Pro Police Scanner | $2.99 | per 7 days |
| 5-0 Radio Pro Police Scanner | $39.99 | per year |
| 5-0 Radio Pro Police Scanner | $9.99 | per month |


## What do users think of 5?

Overall sentiment: neutral

**Pros**

- 🚀 Great app and underrated
- 👍 Awesome app, works well
- 👍 Convenient to use
- 👍 Helpful for staying informed

**Cons**

- 🔇 Too many ads, ads interfere with usage
- 🐛 App not working, channels missing
- 💰 Subscription too expensive
- 🐛 Ads won't close, app freezes

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Channels not working, app freezing
- Ads disrupting audio playback
- Inconsistent pricing across versions

**Most requested features**

- Separate channels for different emergency services
- Reduce ad frequency and duration
- Add more local channels
- Improve background listening experience

## Recent user reviews (10 of 137)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/5-0-radio-police-scanner/id356336433/reviews.md

### 1/5 — Used to be great…

*2024-10-14*

I live in a pretty rural area, so there isn’t a ton to listen to, so I generally only pick this up when I hear sirens in my area. Because of that it is not worth a subscription to me. And with this last update, the inundation of lengthy, annoying advertisements in order to push your new subscription service is completely obnoxious. I will just delete the program. I don’t need to know that badly. I don’t mind paying for an app or a service if it’s worth it, but I’m not giving you three bucks a month to listen to two channels once in a blue moon. I don’t need to talk to the other 86 listeners in my area thanks.
Update : so I forgot to delete, heard a bunch of sirens, picked up the app. Nothing on the radio channel, and it took me 2 minutes of advertising to figure that out and that there isn’t another channel in my area to hear it. 
I don’t mind an ad or two, but it’s horrible unless you have one channel you can log into and just stay on that. If you switch, swap, or close the app, be prepared to start over, and watch King Robert die again while some influencer I’ve never heard of tells us how awesome that stupid game is 500 times. Nope.

### 1/5 — Lost all but fire for scanner. Very disappointed

*2024-09-17*

Used to be able to listen here in Ontario Canada but your app must have been zapped it doesn’t work at all anymore.

### 1/5 — Useless app

*2024-09-10*

Wanted a 3 day trial but charged immediately. We decided to give it a try anyways. Our station worked for approximately 8 days and now silence. Says last scan was from 12 hours ago when clearly we hear sirens and know we are missing calls. Very disappointed especially when we didn’t get a free trial.

### 4/5 — Perfect app and underrated!

*2024-08-26*

This app is great, does not let you down except for the ads, but other than that this app is absolutely amazing and fantastic!

### 4/5 — So many ads!

*2024-08-12*

I love the scanner app because I can choose the local stations and it’s very convenient. I especially like that you can tell which department is using the radios. I really can’t stand the ads! I know the point is to convince you to purchase the app but at the same time having advertisements that play on top of the scanner makes no sense and I don’t know about other people, but I often listen to the scanner while I’m driving. the downfall is that when the start and the go over, you can’t make it stop unless you start touching your phone which causes a safety issue. Just my personal opinion, but if they had the ads at least had at least muted them at least it wouldn’t eat or fear with the purpose of the app

### 3/5 — Is okay

*2024-07-21*

It’s a good app. I’ve tried quite a few and come back to this one all the time BUT there are waaaaay too many ads. I turn it on when I hear sirens and by the time I work through all of the ads and connect to the local station the info about what is happening is done. I’d consider paying to avoid the apps but not $50 a year.

### 4/5 — Works good

*2024-06-26*

I like it, you can hear legit conversations, TONS of ads but the station plays in the background so idc much, only concern is if they can hear you or if your mic is being tampered with but I believe it doesn’t

### 1/5 — 50 bucks later

*2024-06-11*

50 to find out my area does not work. No thanks.

### 3/5 — App doesn’t seem to work for me anymore

*2024-05-13*

I enjoyed it before as I could turn it on when emergency vehicles were going by but now when I do that this past few months, it just freezes and I hear nothing

### 5/5 — Awesome app

*2024-04-20*

This app works totally exact as expected Local events happening at every level Enjoyable listening 😃👌

## Frequently asked questions about 5

### What does the 5-0 Radio Police Scanner app do?

This app provides access to a large collection of live police, fire, aircraft, railroad, emergency, news, and ham radio feeds from around the world. It allows users to listen to real-time audio broadcasts and stay informed about local events and breaking news.

### What are the key features of this app?

Key features include live radio feeds with active alerts, background listening, the ability to add custom feeds, an integrated map to locate feeds, and built-in police codes for interpretation. Users can also save favorite feeds for quick access and customize the app's appearance.

### Is this app free to use?

The app is free to download and use, but it does contain ads. Users can upgrade to '5-0 Radio Pro' to remove ads, access more feeds, and unlock additional features. This upgrade is an in-app purchase.

### What devices is this app compatible with?

The app is available for iOS devices. It also allows users to listen to feeds on their desktop or laptop computers via a web browser or MP3 player by emailing a link to the feed.

### What are common use cases for this app?

Common use cases include staying updated on local crime and emergency situations, monitoring weather alerts, following breaking news as it happens, and listening to aircraft or railroad communications. It's also useful for beginners learning about public safety codes.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 56.0.0 — 2024-01-08

Updated feed list

### 55.0.0 — 2023-11-26

Minor bug fixes

### 54.0.0 — 2023-11-20

Significantly reduced the amount of ads shown for the free version. (Optional) Try out the Pro version of 5-0 Radio if you want to remove all ads.

### 53.0.0 — 2023-09-29

A free trial for 5-0 Radio Pro is now available

### 52.0.0 — 2023-09-21

Optimizations for the newest iOS

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## More apps by Smartest Apps LLC

- [5-0 Radio Pro Police Scanner](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/5-0-radio-pro-police-scanner/id341776037)
- [HiDef Radio Pro - News & Music Stations](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hidef-radio-pro-news-and-music-stations/id347329411)
- [HiDef Radio - Free News & Music Stations](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hidef-radio-free-news-and-music-stations/id369639576)

All apps by Smartest Apps LLC: https://appshunter.io/developer/323131781

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*