Walkie-talkies are still unconventional technical items. Everyone has a phone - homeless people have phones. Phones are ubiquitous, and someone having one is not unusual.

They might be lower-tech, but it is odd if someone has a walkie-talkie - also easy to monitor (range == eavesdroppers have range too) and it is in fact illegal to use encryption over the available frequencies or to send digital data (so all things you could do, but which would draw attention).

The problem with committing crimes is that efforts to cover up the crime themselves are likely to create evidence of it.