Why do movies & TV use this police radio clip over and over?

Recycling effects is a very common tactic in post-production. Once you have an effect that works great, it's simply cheaper and faster to reuse it than to reinvent the wheel over and over again, especially when 99% of the viewers won't notice it.

You are one of the few people who noticed that this particular sound was recycled, but there are hundreds of cases of recycled sounds and other effects you did not even notice.

For example, here is a list of 10 common recycled sound effects, including the very famous Wilhelm Scream, which was used in movies like Star Wars and Indiana Jones:

In cases like this, recycling elements can also be a tradition (e.g. a certain director adding his fingerprint) or a homage to previous movies.

Here is a list of recycled movie props, the most famous one being the newspaper that is used in a lot of shows and movies throughout screen history:

(picture taken from businessinsider.com)

The user raoulduke12 gives a good explanation on reddit:

When you make a television show, everything on it needs to be "cleared", as in, legal to show on television without getting sued. So everything you use, whether it be artwork, products or yes, newspapers, needs to contain photographs and text that are legally safe to use on television.

At some point in time, a company that specializes in manufacturing and renting props created a prop newspaper, using a photo that had been cleared. Since it was easy enough to just keep reprinting that newspaper and using it, that's exactly what Hollywood did. For 50+ years.

That being said, I doubt it would be legal to use a police radio scanner to capture actual police radio chat and publish this later.

This is just an addendum to the other answers.

This particular audio clips is part of the Premiere Edition Vol.1 (released in 1990)

from the company Hollywood Edge, which

provides high end, professional, and royalty free special effects and music for all media use

It's a 2 min track that features:

Police Radio; Calls Received Through Radio From Female Dispatcher With Static And Squelch Pops; Close Perspective

[Click here to listen to it]

(it's also available on iTunes)

The Premiere Edition Vol. 1 contains 1,458 sound effects and currently costs $750.
This means that for a relatively low cost you get a sound effect library which you can use royalty free.

Some Movies & TV have big budgets, yes, but why waste it on something so few people are complaining about. This is just a stock clip purchasable/usable in films, much like the sound made when a bad guy appears on screen, or the high pitch shrill noises made in horror movies at a scene where a shock is supposed to occur.

I would assume this clip is used simply because it's cheap, it works and it sounds authentic. Why spend more when you don't have to?