As I mentioned in a previous post, you'll want digital for monitoring state police from Lowell and the Toll Road district. Also, the recent district disaster exercises in District 1 have utilized the SAFE-T system, including Lake County. Here in neighboring Newton County, the sheriff's deputies use the 800 system about 50% of the time, if that is ever of any interest. While not digital yet, Kankakee County, Illinois uses both VHF and 800, which comes in handy when those tornadic storms are moving into southern Lake County from Illinois. As everyone concurs, buying anything but a digital scaner in today's environment would not be advisable.