Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Codes

LAPD radio traffic is its own language, and it pulls from three different systems at once. There are the Code numbers that set how urgently an officer responds, the penal code numbers that name the crime, and a set of 10-codes for routine communication. Put together, a single dispatch can contain all three. This guide breaks down each layer, explains the famous ones like 187 and Code 3, and shows how they fit together on a Los Angeles channel.

A fast orientation before the lists: when you hear a number on an LAPD scanner, it usually falls into one of three buckets. A low single-digit “Code” (Code 2, Code 3) tells officers how fast to get there. A three-digit number (187, 211, 459) tells them what crime they’re dealing with, drawn straight from the California Penal Code. And a “10-” code handles the housekeeping of radio talk. Once you can sort a number into the right bucket on the fly, the whole conversation snaps into focus.

How LAPD Radio Communication Is Structured

The LAPD organises the city into geographic areas — patrol divisions, each with its own station house — and unit call signs encode where an officer works and what kind of unit they are. The classic “Adam-12” style designation isn’t just television: an LAPD unit number identifies the division, the type of unit, and the basic car or beat. A designation like “6-Adam-12” tells listeners the area, the kind of unit (a two-officer patrol car, in that letter convention), and the specific car. Reporting districts — the division plus a master beat number — pin incidents to a precise patch of the city. So before a single code is spoken, the unit identifier already carries a lot of geographic information.

Because Los Angeles is enormous and busy, the radio language is built for speed and for layering information. An officer can state their status, the priority of a call, and the crime involved in a few clipped numbers. The California approach also differs from the eastern ten-code tradition in a key way: California agencies lean heavily on penal code section numbers as radio shorthand, something you hear far less in, say, New York, where ten-codes do the crime-naming work. For the national context behind these regional differences, our US police code overview is a helpful companion.

LAPD Response Codes (Code 1 Through Code 7)

These set the manner and urgency of a response. They’re among the most useful codes to learn because they tell you the tempo of what’s happening before you know anything else about the call.

Code 3 and Code 4 are the two you’ll hear most. Code 3 is the fast, loud emergency run; Code 4 is the all-clear that tells everyone the scene is handled and extra units can stand down. Code 6 has useful variants worth knowing: Code 6-Adam flags that an officer investigating may need backup because a situation could turn dangerous, and Code 6-Charles indicates the officer is dealing with a possibly wanted or armed suspect — a signal to other units to head that way. And Code 5 is a quiet but important one: it means a stakeout is underway and marked units should stay away so they don’t blow the operation.

LAPD Penal Codes Used on the Radio

This is the layer that makes California radio distinctive. Officers cite California Penal Code section numbers to name a crime. A few, like 187, have spilled out of police work and into everyday slang.

A note on a couple of these. The number 502 was long used on the radio for drunk driving, even though the current statute actually lives in the California Vehicle Code rather than the Penal Code — a leftover from an older numbering that survives out of habit. And 5150 isn’t a penal code at all: it comes from the Welfare and Institutions Code and refers to a 72-hour involuntary psychiatric hold, but it’s spoken on the radio exactly like a crime code. There are also “500-series” radio codes in California that substitute for other sections and mostly involve vehicles, which is a separate quirk that grew out of the 1971 revision of the California Vehicle Code. These oddities are normal in a system that accreted over decades rather than being designed all at once. The deeper history of how numeric radio codes spread is covered in our US 10-codes guide.

LAPD 10-Codes

LAPD uses a smaller set of standard 10-codes, mostly for communication and status rather than naming crimes — the penal codes handle that job.

Reading a Real LAPD Dispatch

Once you know the three layers, a transmission starts to make sense. “Code 3, 211 in progress” tells responding units to run hot to an active robbery. A few minutes later, “Code 4” tells them it’s handled and they can stand down. “Show me 10-8” means an officer is back in service and available. “6-Adam-12, 10-97” means a specific two-officer car has arrived on scene. The numbers stack to compress a great deal of meaning into a short burst of radio, which is the whole point of the system.

Picture a fuller exchange. Dispatch puts out a “459 in progress” — a burglary happening now — and assigns it Code 3. A unit acknowledges, gives its location with a 10-20, and arrives with a 10-97. Once inside, the officer finds the scene secure and calls Code 4, releasing the backup units. Then a 10-98 closes the assignment, and the car is available again. Every step is a number, and every number does a precise job. For a broader view of how these code families are grouped, see the US police code category.

The Phonetic Alphabet LAPD Uses

For spelling names, streets, and plates on a noisy channel, LAPD officers use the NATO phonetic alphabet.

You’ll also hear the older “Adam, Boy, Charles, David” letter style baked into unit designations like “6-Adam-12.” That convention predates the NATO standard and survives specifically in call signs, even as officers use the modern NATO words for spelling out names and plates. So a single LAPD transmission can contain both alphabets — the old one in the unit number, the new one when reading a licence plate — which surprises people the first time they notice it.

How LAPD Codes Compare to the Rest of California

LAPD’s mix is broadly shared with other Southern California municipal agencies, but there are differences worth knowing. The California Highway Patrol uses its own set of 11-codes in addition to 10-codes — for instance, 11-99 means an officer needs help, the CHP equivalent of the emergency call other agencies handle differently. CHP also uses vehicle-code numbers where municipal departments would reach for the 500-series radio codes. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which polices unincorporated areas and many contract cities, has its own conventions layered on the same California foundation. So even within the geography of Los Angeles, the exact code you hear depends on which agency keyed up — LAPD, LASD, or CHP — and a fluent listener learns to tell them apart. For the wider catalogue across systems, the master police code lists page is a good reference.

Tips for Following LAPD Scanner Traffic

• Sort the number into a bucket. Is it a Code (how fast), a penal code (what crime), or a 10-code (status)?
• Learn Code 3 and Code 4 first. They frame the tempo of nearly every serious call — the run in and the stand-down.
• Memorise the big penal codes. 187, 211, and 459 come up constantly and tell you immediately how serious a call is.
• Listen for the Code 6 variants. Adam and Charles signal possible danger and a wanted suspect respectively.
• Mind the agency. LAPD, LASD, and CHP overlap geographically but don’t use identical codes.
• Don’t take 5150 literally as a penal code — it’s a mental-health hold from a different code book, used like one on the air.

Using Police Code to Explore Further

Police Code is a global police code explorer that lets you look up any of these numbers — a Code, a penal section, a 10-code — in one searchable database instead of piecing meanings together from scattered sources. It lines up LAPD usage against other agencies and countries and shows the legal references behind each code, which is especially useful in California where a single number might be a Penal Code section, a Vehicle Code reference, or a radio-only substitute. It’s free to browse and built for scanner hobbyists, writers, reporters, and anyone studying for a role in dispatch or patrol.

The essential thing about LAPD radio is that it’s a three-layer language, and fluency comes from sorting each number into its layer instinctively. The Code tells you the urgency, the penal code tells you the crime, and the 10-code tells you the status. Add the geographic intelligence built into the unit numbers and the quirks like 5150 and the old Adam-Boy-Charles call signs, and you have one of the richest and most distinctive police radio dialects in the country.