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Yes, Anyone who was interested could listen. The police of course knew this and would probably say only what was really necessary. I doubt this was a big advantage to the criminal being chased. The radio was more of an advantage to police.

There was a saying in the old days, "You can't outrun the Motorola" (Motorola was a major manufacturer of police radios). Someone running in a car for instance would have had to deal with traffic, and so on. If every police car in the area knew where he was and what direction he was going there wouldn't have been much chance of getting away.