Ever wonder what is happening when you see police or other activity in your Amherst neighborhood? Or where you work? There is a lack of local news in Amherst, MA. And certainly the official police blotter leaves out a LOT of information and is not real-time.

AmherstScanner transcribes real-time, publicly-available radio communication data that is gathered via multiple public and published frequencies and puts it in writing so that the citizens of Amherst and surrounding areas (Hadley, Belchertown, Sunderland, Pelham, South Hadley) can keep up with what is happening in town…in near real-time. It is essentially the Amherst Police Scanner, Amherst Fire Department Scanner, and, for those who really want to know, the Amherst Department of Public Works Scanner (pothole, anyone?).  AI does the transcription, so sometimes it is not accurate and even laughable.

Data is published about 15 minutes after transmission of original voice data.

Readers can contact us with any questions or suggestions for the site.

We would like to charge a small monthly fee to simply offset the cost of electricity, but we are not there yet. For now, we are using Amazon links to earn some coffee money.

Disclaimer: Transcriptions are certainly not 100% accurate.

Hot off the air

___ Dispatch, 10, are you all set? I’m all set. Proceed. ___ 10-2 Dispatch Go ahead 10 Do run me an OLN Marked OLN, S4TIERRA, A4ALPHA, 728, 1655 10, I cut out there in the middle of that, I got a STIERRA ALPHA, 728, and I cut out 55 10 S4TIERRA, A4ALPHA, 728, 1655 Received 10 Dispatch, turn out that M4 if you want it Roger 10 That OLN goes back to OB-HUGIT, come out 09-12-2002, negative reactive, out of 950 North Pleasant Street, in Amherst, and NOBOP, or local history

Date picker

November 2025
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Abbreviations

  1. RP = Reporting Party
  2. BOLO = Be On the LookOut
  3. CAD = Computer-Aided Dispatch