Like some others have posted in this thread, I guess I'm just nosy. Seriously, when my folks got their first Bearcat III back in the early '70s, it was an eye-opener in that so much stuff went on that never even made the news. Others have posted that things come out differently in the news than on the scanner...but I still hear a ton of stuff that I'd think newsworthy, yet you never see it mentioned in the local papers (our local TV news is a joke).
I find a scanner more interesting and entertaining than broadcast radio...I really like having mine with me when I'm driving. I don't find it distracting at all, and if I hear of something happening along my route, I can detour and both avoid the trouble and also not be adding to the burden of the responders on the scene. I run the audio from the headphone jack on my Pro-18 through a Scosche FM micro-transmitter into the car/pickup stereo so I get really good audio quality and my no-longer-young ears can understand things better.
Also I was a Reserve Deputy Sheriff for several years back in the '80s & '90s and have been a Volunteer FF for nearly 30 years, so I got used to being a small part of what was going on locally. Being able to hear the various agencies in my area gives me the feeling that I'm still in the LE part of the loop, I guess. I also have something to refer to when I have to occasionally jack up our County Dispatch because of the sometimes ridiculous delay between an officer reporting something needing FD attention and the dispatch actually going out...