There are a lot of members here active in some type of public safety (police, fire, ems etc) that use two way radios in place of scanners since they need the ability to communicate, not just receive.
There are also some enterprising amateur radio operators that use commercial radios for VHF/UHF since they perform much better than the typical off-the-shelf "YaeComWood" hammy rig.
Yes, I'm sure are some people using bootleg /\/\ radios on their local trunked systems as scanners...however that is their problem when caught, and hopefully this thread will not spiral out of control with posts about how illegal it is. This topic has all ready been beat to death many times over on this and other radio forums.
Insofar as transmitting on public safety channels, only someone that has a need and the authorization to do so should be doing it. Just because people use a radio like the Spectra doesn't mean that they are transmitting where they shouldn't. Commercial radios can be programmed on a per channel basis so they don't transmit where not authorized.
Long story short, unless you have a legitimate need for a two-way radio, commercial or otherwise, stick to using the scanner. It's much more agile and adaptable.
