Answer:
There are scanners that can allow the average person to listen to police calls, but they may be somewhat hard to find. Many years ago, the "police band" was 1650 to 1750 kHz, and large home radio sets were able to tune those frequencies - people sat at home on dull evenings and listened to police calls - I'm old enough to remember that!
See the related link below. There are several others available sources, which you can find with any search engine.