POLICE CODE

United States

Browse all police status codes used in the United States.

Basic Police Radio Codes
The following codes may be used by law enforcement officers to communicate effectively over voice radio systems.
Emergency Response Codes
These codes may be used by police officers and other emergency response personnel to communicate more effectively during emergencies.
Police Radio Nicknames
These are nicknames that may be heard from time to on police radio scanners.
Police Abbreviations
The following abbreviations are frequently used in police documents
Police Radio 10-Codes
Ten-codes, also known as 10-codes or ten signals, are code words used by many police officers to aid with voice communication. The codes were originally developed in 1937 to allow for brevity, clarity, and standardization of messages transmitted over radio channels. On old radio systems, channels were limited so messages needed to be short. Also, the first syllable of speech was often not transmitted, so the syllable "ten" was prefixed to all numeric codes to ensure that the important information would be received. Despite their usefulness, the exact meaning of ten-codes often varies between jurisdictions and locations. In addition to law enforcement, ten-codes are frequently used on Citizens' Band (CB) radio. One of the most frequently used ten-codes, 10-4, has become popular enough to sometimes be used in every-day language.
Police Radio 11-Codes
Eleven-codes compose a system of numeric code words devised by the California Highway Patrol to describe dispatches or situations frequent to the work of the Patrol. They are also used alongside ten-codes and other voice radio protocols.
California Penal Codes
The California Penal Code forms the basis for the application of criminal law in the state of California. The code numbers have been adopted by police departments in California for use as radio dispatch codes to describe law enforcement situations.
Other Police Scanner Codes
These miscellaneous codes may be used by various police departments to communicate more easily over the radio or in documentation.
Police Phonetic Alphabet
This is the phonetic alphabet used by the New York Police Department. When spelling out words over the radio, each letter of the word is replace with a code word to reduce ambiguity between similar-sounding letters.
Popular Police Codes