Do you all think that Police scanner sounds are considered public domain?
Police scanner sounds public domain?
- Thread starter Blade_Jones
- Start date
Do you mean the actual conversations or the signal alerts?
Actual police department communications may be protected in one way or another. I don't know if there is a copyright on the alerts; I would assume (but don't know) that they are created/commissioned by the manufacturer of the communications equipment and may be copyrighted.
I have a small collection (about 3 hours or so) of police band recordings. I've used them as references and recreated the conversations and sounds - with appropriate modifications - and worldized the results; I actually settled on a crappy guitar practice amp, the walkie-talkie was too thin.
Actual police department communications may be protected in one way or another. I don't know if there is a copyright on the alerts; I would assume (but don't know) that they are created/commissioned by the manufacturer of the communications equipment and may be copyrighted.
I have a small collection (about 3 hours or so) of police band recordings. I've used them as references and recreated the conversations and sounds - with appropriate modifications - and worldized the results; I actually settled on a crappy guitar practice amp, the walkie-talkie was too thin.
Conversations. I don't know how anyone would ever identify benign sounds. "Hey that's my distortion sound. I'm gonna sue you." Not!
It depends upon how you mix it. If it is low in the mix and unrecognizable then you could probably get away with it okay, although I don't recommend it.
In fact, I recommend that you create your own; it's fun and you'll learn a lot.
Otherwise I recommend don't use anything that people may have heard, such as the OJ Simpson car chase police band recordings. -
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In fact, I recommend that you create your own; it's fun and you'll learn a lot.
Otherwise I recommend don't use anything that people may have heard, such as the OJ Simpson car chase police band recordings. -
-I did a little digging around online. Looks like laws vary from state to state. I can over dub some of it using paid scanner sounds from a library.
I can only speak for Los Angeles County Sheriff's communications and LA County Fire, but they are not in the public domain, and you WILL need permission to"legally" (hint hint) reuse them in film, video, or audio recordings. If you reuse live recordings, just scrub them of any identifying information, including unit numbers. But it's the easiest thing to recreate your own. Just make it up. If you're my age (60's) , you remember "One Adam Twelve, see the man, 459 suspect there now." Or if you're REALLY my age...
"2150 to headquarters"
"Headquarters by" (from "Highway Patrol" starring Broderick Crawford, 1955-1959)
Get a $20 Radio Shack scanner, set it for your local departments, and just listen in. Unless you have a trunked monitor (monitors two separate frequencies simultaneously, not merely scans) you'll either hear dispatched calls OR officer calls... but they're not transmitted on the same frequency. Go for monitoring the dispatched calls. BTW, SEB/SWAT /EOD are usually encrypted. And the phonetic alphabet used by most law enforcement IS NOT the same one used in aviation or by the military, so don't use "Alpha, Bravo, Charlie..."
"2150 to headquarters"
"Headquarters by" (from "Highway Patrol" starring Broderick Crawford, 1955-1959)
Get a $20 Radio Shack scanner, set it for your local departments, and just listen in. Unless you have a trunked monitor (monitors two separate frequencies simultaneously, not merely scans) you'll either hear dispatched calls OR officer calls... but they're not transmitted on the same frequency. Go for monitoring the dispatched calls. BTW, SEB/SWAT /EOD are usually encrypted. And the phonetic alphabet used by most law enforcement IS NOT the same one used in aviation or by the military, so don't use "Alpha, Bravo, Charlie..."
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