Police radios are available for sale? yeah right

It varies state to state, but no it is not illegal to listen to police scanners. There are certain states dont allow them in your car, and you cant use them to aid in committing a crime, but otherwise it is legal.

In most states, 911 calls are public records. Lots of police activity is not as secret as you would think.

I dont believe that there is an easy way to look up license plates like that though.

From what I gather, it's not illegal to listen to a police scanner, but it's illegal to actually act on what you hear -- like go to the scene of the crime. So basically he was breaking the law constantly in this movie just by doing that alone.

As for looking up names and addresses by the car number plate -- unfortunately there are actually websites that will let you do that, most of them for a fee. Some of them actually advertize themselves with lines like "Seen a cute girl at the red light? Want her number or address? All you need is her plate number!"

The reason I know this is because I was once followed extensively in my car by a stranger who I reported to the police, and they told me he's known to them for other stuff and was escalating his MO by following me. The cops told me I was smart to notice he was tailing me and smart not to lead him to my home -- I had led him to the police station and when he saw where we were going he peeled away leaving dust.

But later a friend told me this guy could still find out where I live and come after me, just from my number plates which he was behind for all the time he was tailing me.

I was shocked so I googled that - and sure enough there were sites that just tell you all the person's info. This was in the early 2000s -- I have no idea whether maybe that's illegal now and those sites aren't there anymore. But they were then.

Turns out another friend who works at a used car dealership has free access there to running a plate, as part of the job, and he ran the GUY'S number for ME. He lived really near, which was no comfort.

I have a radio so I could listen to police, fire, ambulance, air traffic control, taxis, public transport, couriers, anything which uses a radio. I got the radio for about $200 from an electronics store back in about 1995 or so.

But then Australian police moved to secure-encrypted system and that spoiled a lot of the appeal for me but is understandable as a way to increase security in modern times.

Yes, it is legal to listen to police, ambulance, fire, weather and other emergency scanners.

There are many apps for this in all mobile phone app stores.