Well disregard much of what I just posted....
If you have this radio:
https://www.baofengradio.com/products/uv-9gThen you have a radio which is locked to GMRS frequencies in order to be GMRS type approved. It's not a fully programmable radio. It does apparently have extra channels that can be programmed for receive only, if that is what you're trying to do, and also channels that can be programmed for GMRS repeaters.
So I guess we need to know more specifically about what you're trying to do.
Quoted:
I thought GMRS would be as simple as click some buttons in chirp, config the unit for local activity, then start hearing chatter. I guess I'm just frustrated that I used chirp and youtube to program repeaters and my local police frequencies and I hear nothing.
View Quote
Some places have very little activity on GMRS (and amateur) repeaters and local simplex. There may not be any chatter for you to hear.
The police frequencies one would assume would have some activity, as long as they're still correct and current, and using analog instead of some digital format.
Where did you get the police frequencies from?
This is usually a good resource:
https://www.radioreference.com/db/browse/Couple of technical things to think about in programming:
For each channel/frequency you put in, part of that line should be a field for narrow or wideband. Amateur, NOAA, or most GMRS will be wideband. FRS channels along with any land mobile (like police/fire etc) will be narrow.
Don't know if you are familiar with squelch codes or how they work, there are two systems (PL/CTCSS and DPL/DCSS) which can be used, but at the receive end you don't have to use them. Using them correctly can help with some noise or interference issues, but putting the wrong code in means you'll hear nothing, so those might be something to check in your programming.