@sgvscanner: listening to the police scanner and then spreading the news

If you're an SGV resident on Twitter, you may have come across Joe Ortiz, otherwise known as @sgvscanner. Ortiz, 51, is among a growing trend of police-scanner enthusiasts who listen for incidents — fights, accidents, murders, and more — and then share the news on Twitter and other media platforms as soon as they hear the reports, the LA Times reports.

Ortiz has more than 3,000 followers and has tweeted almost 30,000 police reports in the San Gabriel Valley. Traffic, collisions, burglaries, gunshots — Ortiz has tweeted about them all. He gets the news from his numerous scanners, which at one point took up an entire room of his house, he told the LA Times. Recent @sgvscanner tweets include:

Monterey park : burglary call on main st PD on scene making entry.

pasadena: female going into labor in apt on el molino FD is on the way.

Alhambra report of a fight several subjects jumping on male victim with a BAT 9th and valley.

Many law enforcement officials feel that citizens listening in can help them in their policing efforts. "One positive that has happened from scanner fans is that they have helped on many occasions to amplify a message," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker told the Times. Alhambra Police Department did not have a comment.