Webcams, audio take visitors all over the United States
January 2, 2002  Associated Press

Herman_Kanter likes to eavesdrop on different cities from the comfort of his home computer in Overland_Park.

Webcams show him live pictures. Streaming audio lets him listen to radio stations from distant cities. And he hears live police and fire scanner feeds on Web sites to find out what's happening on their streets and at their airports.

"It is kind of like being there. You get to hear what is going on in that town," said Kanter, a computer programmer at Sprint Corp.

Numerous scanner sites on the Internet allow Kanter to monitor police scanner traffic from places like New York, Dallas and Chicago. He can also hear scanner feeds from airport control towers in Chicago, Miami and Toronto.

"It is just the idea of hearing planes coming in from different countries. It is just interesting to hear what different people sound like from different countries," he said.

Kanter also likes to keep tabs on things closer to home by visiting the Kansas_City_scanner_page put together by Brian_Fritz, a 29-year-old Kansas_City man who works at a private security firm. He said he has taken criminal justice classes and plans to eventually enter some law enforcement field.

His site includes scanner traffic from Kansas_City, Mo., police and fire departments, as well as feeds from law enforcement agencies in Topeka, Olathe and Lenexa.

Fritz put the live feeds on his site about a year ago. His scanner is connected to his computer through a sound card, and he uses one of several free programs downloaded from the Internet to broadcast the scanner feed to his Web page.

"A lot of people can't afford scanners, and this provides a way for them to listen," he said. "A lot of people I have talked to on e-mail say they have scanners but moved away out of the area."

Among his most loyal Web page listeners is Kansas_City police dispatcher Nichelle Renaud.

On her days off, Renaud goes on the Internet and listens to the live scanner feed of police and fire dispatches in Kansas_City. She recognizes the voices of the dispatchers and officers she works with all week.

"Being a dispatcher you become family with officers, you learn to care about them and you want to make sure they are OK," she said. "I like to know what is going on ... Call us nosy neighbors, but I want to know if there is a car chase down the street or if somebody is prowling in my neighborhood."

She also likes to listen to dispatchers in other cities, just to see how they do their jobs.

Renaud, a single mother with a 5-year-old son, works the 11 p.m.-7 a.m. graveyard shift.

"It is hard to have a relationship working those hours. It is just me and my son, so I don't socialize on my days off. ... I don't have hardly anything to do, but to listen to the Web site," she said.

Associated Press and LJworld.com