This can lead to communication barriers between agencies. While there are some universal codes, such as 10-4 and 10-20, most law enforcement agencies have different meanings for their codes.
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The code 10-20 means “What’s your location?” and the latter code means “OK.” These police codes, most often beginning with 10 and followed by another number, are a common discreet form of communication within law enforcement offices.
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“That’s something we have to be prepared for.These are two of the universal police codes that we’ve heard on popular true crime TV shows or on police scanners. Calling for a wrecker and a hook mean the same thing, but not everyone knows that, he pointed out. While plain talk makes more sense, Duda knows even everyday talk can be challenging. “We don’t use codes at all,” said Tony Bratcher, public information office for the Sugar Creek Township Fire Department. That’s also the policy with county fire departments who immediately went to plain-speak policies right after 9/11, when consensus quickly settled on largely doing away with anything that wasn’t plainly spoken English. “Our policy now is to encourage plain speak,” Harris said. However, new officers coming on board are not required to learn codes or signals, unless they want to. Some officers still use the codes, and that’s fine with officials. “You also want to be able to protect people’s privacy.” “Sometimes it’s for their own safety,” Holland said. Holland thinks it’s good business for law enforcement to be able to communicate without the general population and criminals knowing exactly what they’re doing or are about to do. Like Harris, he understands the reasoning behind getting rid of the codes, but he’d rather have them. Matt Holland, deputy chief of the Greenfield Police Department, also had to memorize the codes when he became a police officer in 1998 and was even tested on them and had to pass in order to become a police officer. He thinks it will take a long time to phase out the use of the codes because some officers are just so used to using them. “It makes sense to just use simple, plain speak,” Harris said. But Harris, for one, has come to believe that phasing out the special kind of communication is a great idea to help avoid mistakes between different departments and agencies. Robert Harris, road patrol supervisor for the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, had to memorize all the codes and signals when he joined the force several years ago.īack then, the idea behind the “brevity codes” was to save time when communicating with other officers and dispatch as well as to avoid miscommunications. In Hancock County, it means the officer has someone in his or her car and is transporting them.Ĭapt. That can be dangerous if multiple jurisdictions are responding to an emergency.įor example, a Signal 48 in one part of Indiana can mean that visitors or officials are present. The shorthand talk can be confusing because - like differences in languages - the codes and signals in one jurisdiction might not mean the same thing in another. While officials with the county 911 Center, the Greenfield Police Department, Hancock County Sheriff’s Department still allow officers and employees to use the shorthand to communicate, they’re trying to phase out the iconic vocabulary. “Basically what’s happening as older officers retire, the codes are going out with them,” Duda said. Among the myriad problems with the emergency communications that day, some people just couldn’t understand what others were saying. It all went to hell there,” said Greg Duda, public information officer for the Hancock County 911 Center. “That’s exactly where it came from - during 9/11. The idea had its genesis after agencies in New York City had trouble communicating with outside first-responders during the Sept.
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A “Signal 9,” which a dispatcher might announce during a fire run, means “disregard.” The shorthand language has been in use for generations and was even appropriated by trucker drivers and popularized during the citizens band radio craze of the late 1970s and early ’80s.īut over the years, local, state and national experts have begun to think it best for first-responders to start phasing out the special way of communicating in favor of everyday talk.
A dispatcher who sends an alert about a “10-55,” for example, is talking about a drunk driver.
Or “OK, I gotcha.” They both mean the same thing, but one is a little easier to understand than the other.Īnyone who has listened to a police scanner or watched popular cop shows is familiar with the code and signal talk used by police agencies and other first-responders. HANCOCK COUNTY - “Ten-four,” a police officer might tell a dispatcher over the radio.