Jun 03, 2020 13:06:00

An app that can listen to police radio in a large-scale protest against the assault death of a black man is adult

Protests are spreading across the United States after a black man, George Floyd, was

suffocated and killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In this move, it is reported that apps that allow you to listen to police radio on your smartphone are becoming more popular.

Thousands Are Monitoring Police Scanners During the George Floyd Protests-VICE
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pkybn8/police-radio-scanner-apps-george-floyd-protests

According to information obtained from Allen Wong, the developer of the news site VICE '5-0 Radio Police Scanner', the number of users has reached the maximum in 10 years since the development of the application, especially 2020 At the end of May, the number of users was doubling every day. As of early June, there are more than 500,000 active users.

'5-0 Radio Police Scanner' is a free app for iOS, and was said to have ranked second in 'Popular free apps' for a while. A paid version with additional features is priced at 610 yen, and Windows apps are distributed at the Microsoft Store.

'5-0 Radio Police Scanner' on the App Store
https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/5-0-radio-police-scanner/id356336433

Get 5-0 Radio Police Scanner-Microsoft store en-in
https://www.microsoft.com/ja-jp/p/5-0-radio-police-scanner/9wzdncrfj339

The app looks like this. Similar to the radio listening application, there are various radio channel feeds not limited to police, and you can listen to the contents by selecting it.

The same type of app, 'Police Scanner Radio & Fire,' also ranked fourth.

'Police Scanner Radio & Fire' on the App Store
https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/police-scanner-radio-fire/id498405045

These apps do not directly listen to the radio, but the volunteers who listen to the radio provide the feed, and the app selects and listens to it. In other words, one of the factors that makes the app more useful is that there are many volunteers providing feeds.

It's relatively easy to get involved because volunteers only need a wireless scanner and a PC. While the new coronavirus was rampant, there were many people who bought volunteers to facilitate wireless communication across departments and jurisdictions of different hospitals, so it is convenient to listen to police radio in this way It seems that the high condition is maintained.