The Society of Professional Journalists calls the police scanner "about as necessary in a newsroom as is the pen and notebook." But that doesn't mean an aspiring neighborhood blogger needs one. More and more, I turn to another way to monitor the "airwaves" for what is happening in my neighborhood -- Twitter.
Here's an example of results from a recent search on Twitter for mentions of "accident" near Seattle:
Arboreality:
Stuck behind an accident on 520E. Stupid 7am conference calls. Seattle, WA
macartisan:
Traffic report: Bad accident near Microsoft. Didn't know Vista could drive. SEATTLE
nandron:
Standstill traffic on 520. Cop just flee by. Must have been a big accident Seattle, WA
Instead of monitoring the fuzz of the scanner around the clock, a well-formed query allows you to tap into Twitter's stream of thoughts and observations from around your neighborhood. Try searches using prominent streets or businesses in your area and save the URLs to your favorites or subscribe to the results RSS feeds in your favorite reader.
You can then take that $250 you would have spent on a police scanner and put it to better use. Your neighborhood blog's latte fund, for example.
