If I am not mistaken I think the “Beartracker” feature, and scanners bearing that name, goes back to at least the mid 1980’s, and maybe before that. The feature has a couple of dedicated priority channels (it hits them every couple seconds, regardless of what else it is doing) that are specific to police vehicles being close by. For example in the past you could scan 154.905 MHz and if you got a hit there you knew a CHP was within a couple of miles, this being the frequency of the mobile extender that allowed the Hi- VHF hand held on the officers hip to be cross banded to the Lo-VHF CHP dispatch frequency.
As for the cost of $450, that really is not too bad. The scanner is full featured, digital modes, trunking, GPS enabled (to automatically select frequencies in your are), etc. If you were to grab any scanner with these features it would be in the $400 area anyway. So the addition of a CB, and the convenience of a single unit to do both jobs, for $50 or a little more does not seem excessive.
T!