Police Scanner

The police scanner, also known as the police radio, or police dispatch, is featured in every Grand Theft Auto game since the first, with the exception of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and Grand Theft Auto Online.

Upon gaining a wanted level, the dispatch will go off, which the player can hear. The police will announce the crime being commited, and will announce the player's location, saying something like "We have a (codename of crime) in north, west, etc. (location)". If the player is fleeing in a vehicle, the dispatch will say something like "Suspect last seen in a (color of car) (type of car)". These types of lines stuck with most GTA games, with a different voice of a policeman/woman in each game. For unknown reasons, in GTA: LCS and GTA: VCS, the dispatch will not play at all, suggesting the police scanner was dropped during development of the games.

In Grand Theft Auto IV, the police scanner has changed dynamically. Now, the dispatch will say how many police cars will be dispatched to the crime scene ("Dispatch × (number of units) units from (location)", "Dispatch air unit from (location)"), etc. Also, the dispatch will no longer use codenames (such as 10-92, 10-24, etc.), instead, announcing the actual name of the crime (reckless driver, helicopter down, shots fired, Grand Theft Auto, etc.). In some missions, the dispatch will say unique lines, such as the crimes Niko Bellic commits in missions such as Final Interview and Three Leaf Clover (in the latter, the dispatch's dialogue is the longest in the entire game, describing the robbery at the Bank of Liberty, and how the suspects are armed and dangerous). The same dispatch is reused in The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, with some new dialogue recorded exclusively for the two episodes. If Luis Fernando Lopez causes trouble at any of the two nightclubs in Algonquin, the dispatch will announce a "disturbance at the nightclub in Westminster/Purgatory". The police scanner is also absent in GTA: Chinatown Wars, although this could be because of hardware limitations.

The police scanner reappears in Grand Theft Auto V, with updated dialogue from the new female dispatch operator. Like other games, the dispatch will use codenames, and will annouce the location of the player. It will also announce the units dispatched to the crime scene. The player can now hear dialogue from the helicopter pilots, which will say lines like "Air support in route!" The pilots will also announce if the player is in their sight or not. The police scanner is absent once again in Grand Theft Auto Online, possibly due to the many players online at the same time.

Trivia

 * Grand Theft Auto: London 1969, Grand Theft Auto: London 1961, Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto V are the only games to have a female police dispatch operator.


 * The police dispatch in Grand Theft Auto Advance is recycled from Grand Theft Auto III, although at times it could repeat the same thing, and could even mix up the lines, such as mixing up the codename of the crime with what vehicle the player is driving or if he/she is on foot (ex. the dispatch may say "We got a - Suspect is on foot! - in east Aspatria"). Notice the dispatch does not announce the crime, instead announcing that the player is on foot. The dispatch may even go off to crimes that Mike is not commiting, but other crimes in the vincinity.
 * When anouncing a vehicle description, the dispatch operator will often be hesitant (using "um"s and "ahh"s) as if trying to interpret a description from an eye witness.
 * In Grand Theft Auto V, the dispatch operator may even say/describe the names of the three protagonists (ex. "Suspect is a young African-American male/Suspect is Franklin Clinton"), however, she incorrectly says Michael De Santa's last name as "De Santo".
 * the dispatch operator in Grand Theft Auto V has the most lines than any other operator in the series. Also, this is the first game to feature dialogue from Police Maverick pilots, who will announce whether he sees the suspect or not.