Coming from a law enforcement viewpoint, im not a fan of not being able to scan neighboring cities. Im with livonia PD, and when this Open Sky reaches Farmington Hills, we wont be able to listen to their dispatch channels.
Our vehicles are equipped with Pro-2096s. On them we have all of the neighboring cities, and we actively scan them during our shifts, just incase another dispatch center puts out a BOL, or a hot call, or even officers needing assistance.
This just recently happened. While scanning Westland, an officer needs help call went out, LPD officers were close to the westland border, and near the call, so they were able to jump on it quickly.
HOWEVER, if the same thing occured in Farmington Hills, we wont be able to hear the help call over Open Sky. We could be a hop skip and a jump away from the incident, and in position to provide assistance, but since our scanners dont scan open sky, we wouldnt know anyone was in danger.
I can name many instances where the scanners in the police cars helped in the capture of people. For example, we knew of a drunk driver coming toward our city, and were able to sit on it until the vehicle passed. open sky would restrict police department abilities to do that. Such info would have to be transmitted from dispatch center to dispatch center, then onto the officers, which kills a lot of time which allows the suspects to escape.
Overall, i think its in the best interest to have an open sky capable scanner, because it truly does assist other officers from other cities. Having radio traffic blocked from us just is not good, nor practical. Just my opinion though