A police radio code is a
brevity code
Brevity is concision or brevitas, the quality of being brief or concise, or:
* Brevity (comic strip), ''Brevity'' (comic strip), a comic strip created by Guy Endore-Kaiser and Rodd Perry
* Brevity code, a vocal word replacement system
* Operation ...
, usually numerical or alphanumerical, used to transmit information between
law enforcement
Law enforcement is the activity of some members of the government or other social institutions who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by investigating, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms gove ...
over
police radio
Police radio is a radio system used by police and other law enforcement agencies to communicate with one another. Police radio systems almost always use two-way radio systems to allow for communications between police officers and dispatchers.
...
systems in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. Examples of police codes include "
10 codes" (such as 10-4 for "okay" or "acknowledged"—sometimes written X4 or X-4), signals, incident codes,
response codes, or other status codes. These code types may be used in the same sentence to describe specific aspects of a situation.
Codes vary by country, administrative subdivision, and agency. It is rare to find two agencies with the same ten codes, signals, incident codes, or other status codes. While agencies with adjacent or overlapping jurisdictions often have similar codes, it is not uncommon to find differences even within one county or city. Different agencies can have codes dissimilar enough to make communication difficult. There are similarities among popular sets of 10-codes.
The topic of standardized codes has been discussed in US law enforcement circles, but there is no consensus on the issue. Some law enforcement agencies use “plain talk” or “plain codes” which replace codes with standard speech and terminology, albeit in a structured manner or format. Arguments against plain language include its lack of brevity, variability, and lack of secrecy which is often tactically advantageous or a safety issue when officer communications can be overheard by the civilian public.
Examples
California
The Hundred Code is a three-digit police code system. This code is usually pronounced digit-by-digit, using a
radio alphabet
A spelling alphabet ( also called by various other names) is a set of words used to represent the letters of an alphabet in oral communication, especially over a two-way radio or telephone. The words chosen to represent the letters sound sufficien ...
for any letters, as 505 "five zero five" or 207A "two zero seven Alpha". The following codes are used in
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. They are from the
California Penal Code
The Penal Code of California forms the basis for the application of most criminal law, criminal procedure, penal institutions, and the execution of sentences, among other things, in the United States, American state of California. It was origin ...
, except where noted below.
In the 1970s, the television show ''
Adam-12
''Adam-12'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series created by Robert A. Cinader and Jack Webb and produced by Mark VII Limited and Universal Television. The series follows Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers Pe ...
'' was considered so authentic in its portrayal of Los Angeles PD officers and their procedures that excerpts from the shows were used as police training films nationwide.
This led to the widespread use of California Penal Codes as radio codes.
500 codes and similar
"500" codes are only radio codes that substitute for other code sections. For example, a "503" is not Penal Code section 503 (embezzlement). All of the "500" codes, generally, involve vehicles and are thus grouped together (except 594, which is an actual Penal Code section). Additionally, "390" and variants are also radio codes only (CPC 647(f) is the legally enforced section "public intoxication").
In California, some radio codes in the 400–599 range that refer to vehicle violations are left over from the California Vehicle Code (CVC) which was revised in 1971. Some agencies, such as the
California Highway Patrol (CHP) use the current vehicle code numbers while municipal and county police agencies, especially the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) still use the 500 series.
See also
*
Emergency service response codes
Emergency service response codes are predefined systems used by emergency services to describe the priority and response assigned to calls for service. Response codes vary from country to country, jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and even agency t ...
*
APCO phonetic alphabet
*
ICAO spelling alphabet
The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet or simply the Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet, is the most widely used set of clear-code words for communicating the letters of the Latin/Roman ...
*
Ten-code
Ten-codes, officially known as ten signals, are brevity codes used to represent common phrases in voice communication, particularly by US public safety officials and in citizens band (CB) radio transmissions. The police version of ten-codes is o ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Police Code
Law enforcement
Encodings
Brevity codes