I could have sworn that there was some sort of law at either the federal level or state level about not sharing what you heard on a scanner, but after some sleuthing around, I can't find any references to that. Perhaps it was just a well known "best practices" thing from back in ye olden days when scanners were more prevalent and encryption was extremely rare.
Either way there would have to be an exception for the press, as they use scanners and in some cases have authorized receive-only radios for major city police and fire departments that allow them to listen to the otherwise encrypted communications. And that would open the can of worms about who, exactly, qualifies as a "press officer". There are a lot of credentialed freelancers out there but also a lot of so-called citizen journalists who aren't, and where is that line drawn when it comes to disseminating information from radio calls?
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