Kentucky Scanner Law
The following is a link to the actual text of the state law. It is a rather "wordy" law.
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/KRS/432-00/570.PDF
The scanner law was amended back in 2000.
The short answer for the guy from Michigan driving through Kentucky is this. If you want to monitor a police channel, you will need a letter of authorization from each police chief whose frequency you want to monitor. You could also get an FCC amateur license and be legal. Lastly, if you drove a wrecker, then you might be legal.
The above was one of the changes made in the 2000 revision. The other change was to allow firefighters and EMS folks the ability to have a scanner in their personal vehicles. If they have written authorization from their agency heads, then they can monitor fire and EMS frequencies, but not police.
As far as the volunteer assistant fire chief getting his scanner destroyed on the spot by the cops, that might be an interesting story. First, and this is no slam to the good police folks, cops are human and they ain't any more perfect than the rest of us. Thus they can make a mistake and I think one was made.
First, the law is pretty clear. The scanner was supposed to be held for evidence, and only the court could direct the destruction after a conviction.
Second the law says: "It shall be unlawful for any car, automobile, or other vehicle other than one publicly owned and entitled to an official license plate issued by the state issuing a license for the car, to have, or be equipped with the sets or apparatus even though the car is owned by an officer."
It looks to me like if the car was owned by the fire department and had an official license plate, a scanner was legal.
If I was the guy, I'd be asking for a new scanner.
There's a real interesting thing that I don't has received much attention lately. What about trunked public safety systems? All the frequencies that are used by the fire department are also the ones used by the police. So wouldn't every firefighter who was issued a trunked portable radio be in technical violation of the law if he had the radio in his private vehicle? Kinda gets you wondering doesn't it?