Virginia State Police Bans '10 Codes'

[bcjack]

The Virginia State Police is the state's first force to abandon the use of "10 codes" in favor plain-English radio responses.

And organizers of the campaign said they will press to switch all Virginia police and fire departments to standardized responses, The Washington Post said Monday.

Through the years, many local emergency departments adapted the 10-codes to fit individual situations, which could lead to confusion over a code's meaning when working with other crews, the Post said. In response, Virginia government and police and fire officials devised standardized responses for troopers.

Localized codes squawked over police radio bands weren't a problem until the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks threw many responders together, the Post said. After the attacks, federal Homeland Security officials required first responders to speak in plain English when working an event with other agencies.

But as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security began developing a national emergency response system, officials found they needed to ensure that responders spoke the same language.

Virginia troopers said they still lapse into the 10-code language. Troopers also said they worry about whether they're in more danger since their coded language is no longer available, the Post said.

Officer.com...11-15-2006
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[Flying Pig]

Im all for it. There was talk in the Central Valley about losing the 10 code also. It is appareant working Air Support when backing the other agencies. The PD doesnt use 10 code, they use plain text, so when I switch over to their channel, I have to tell myself to talk normal. Also, other cities....the 10 codes can mean other things.

The only thing is that you always have those bozos who think they have to narrate their report on the radio, and who think that the dispatcher really wants to know every detail! As far as security.....its not an issue. How many times have you gone to run someone and the crook says "Dont worry Officer...Im negative 29 valid 27." I once ran a guy and the dispatcher stated "10-xx" which means warrant......as soon as that guy heard the numbers the chase was on. Besides....you can download all the 10 codes anyway. I think the 10 code does sound professional, but as long as you are brief, plain text does also. At any rate, the 10 code wasnt really designed for security, it was designed for brevity. If you want security...go to an alternate channel or get encripted radios.

[Mac]

.....But as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security began developing a national emergency response system, officials found they needed to ensure that responders spoke the same language....
I guess it's never occurred to these career bureaucrats that you could just <GASP> STANDARDIZE the radio codes nationwide and have the same effect. :rolleyes: They're trying to standardize ICS/NIMS/SEMS, or whatever the 'flavor of the day' acronym is today.....why not do the same with radio codes?

[Welpe]

I like using 10 codes as they make some things easier to say on the radio. Since we (and almost every other agency in the county) use the CHP 10 codes there doesn't seem to be a lot of problems when officers from different agencies need to talk to each other.

The 10-xx is pretty obvious which is why the department I work for developed a different system for notifying officers of wanted subjects or other confidential information.

[bcjack]

Courtesy...OFFICER.COM


Tradition vs. Ten Codes

Tim Dees
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

Ye Olde Cop Web Site Editor got some incidental press today when he was quoted in an article for the Washington Post. The article was concerned with the recent edict of the Virginia State Police to its members, requiring that they switch from what is typically called the ?ten code? to ?plain speech? in their radio communications.

I wrote about this evolutionary milepost last year in an editorial, one of the first I published after coming to Officer.com. Obviously, it is still taking hold across the country, in no special progression or pattern. It is going to be difficult for the Virginia troopers, as it has been for every other law enforcement officer in the country that has been required to make the change.

Radio codes have largely outlived their usefulness, mostly due to improvements in technology. Brevity is not as important as it used to be, as there are more radio channels to use than in the early days of wireless public safety communications. Transmissions are clearer, so the ?punch? of a hard consonant isn?t needed to be understood. And the crooks usually know most of the codes, anyway.

Lou Mayo of the Police Association for College Education (PACE) made another observation about why ten codes came into use. The early police radios had transmitters powered by a mechanical magneto. One of the ambulances I drove during my college EMT days still had this type of transmitter. When the radio operator pressed the transmit key, the magneto had to ?spin up? before the transmission could be heard on the receiving end. The sound was a little like a kitchen blender turning on and off. Mayo says that the ten code was so that there would be a slight pause (the ?ten? part) before the critical portion of the transmission was spoken, to allow the magneto to reach operating speed. I?d never heard this explanation before, but it makes sense.

But the biggest change is going to be a cultural one. Radio codes are part of the jargon that cops use to set themselves apart from common citizens. There will still be slang that doesn?t have anything to do with radio codes, of course. Depending on what part of the country you?re in, the local cops will have a ?duck pond,? ?cherry patch,? or ?cash register? to visit when things get slow on the street. All of these are terms for locations where traffic violations are very common, and an officer can find a number of moving violations to write in a short time, and with little effort.

One night, a fellow officer had been called to the scene of a burglary, and I was the designated crime scene investigator (which was, and is, nothing like the assignments you see on the eponymous television shows). I called him on the radio to ask if he would be requiring my services. He replied, ?Negative, entry was by BFR.? That one was new on me, so I drove over to his crime scene, anyway, just to find out what a ?BFR? was. He was amazed to learn that I didn?t know the politically correct term for Big F***ing Rock.

But the classic example of how cops respond to directives to abandon radio codes in favor of plain speech came about on another graveyard patrol shift. We had a K-9 officer named, believe or not, Billy Barks. When you absolutely, positively needed to find out if and where there was a bad guy in a building, Billy and his furry partner Kimo were the ones you called. There was no one better.

Our police chief, depite having been at our agency for several years, had apparently never listened to the police radio before. When he did, he was incensed to discover that he didn?t know what we were saying. He had previously been a cop in the same city where I had gone to college and been a police dispatcher, so we both started out using the same ten code, but the department where we both ended up used a different version. I had made the transition, but he found it too inconvenient. Thus, he decreed that from that moment forward, ten codes were banned from the airwaves in favor of plain speech.

A few days after the issuance of the order, Billy was clearing from a call.

Billy: Reno, what am I supposed to say when I?m 10-8?
Dispatch: [understanding the meaning of ?10-8,? but unable to remember the words] [long silence]
Me: [trying to be helpful] In service.
Billy: Hey, thanks, Timmy! Reno, I?m 10-8.
We went back to ten codes a few days later. Maybe the Virginia State Police will, too.