What Does Police Code 1146 Mean?
If you’ve ever heard “1146” crackle over a police scanner and wondered what is a 1146, here’s the short answer: the 1146 police code — properly written as 11-46 — means “Death Report.” It’s the radio signal officers and dispatchers use when a deceased person has been reported and a response is required. Police Code […]
Police Signal Codes vs 10-Codes vs Penal Codes: 2026 Guide
Listen to enough police radio and the numbers start to blur. “Signal 7 on the shoulder.” “10-8, back in service.” “Got a 459 at the warehouse.” All three sound like the same kind of thing, and they aren’t. Police code and signals belong to different systems, each answering a different question, and mixing them up […]
Police Response Codes Explained: Code 1, Code 2, Code 3, and Code 4
Most police codes describe what is happening. A response code describes how fast the officer is getting there. That is a different job, and it explains why the lowest numbers in the system get used all day while many other codes sit untouched for weeks. The short version: Code 1 is routine, Code 2 is […]
Police 10-Codes: Full List and What Each One Means
Police 10 codes are the numbered radio signals American officers and dispatchers use to say common things quickly: “message received,” “what’s your location,” “traffic accident,” “officer needs help.” Almost everyone knows 10-4, and plenty of people know 10-20, but the full list runs from 10-0 into the hundreds, and the meaning of a given number […]
Police Phonetic Alphabet – Full A-Z Chart (Printable)
Every letter police spell over the radio uses a code word instead — Bravo instead of B, Sierra instead of S — because plain letters get lost in static, engine noise, and bad signal. This page gives you that whole system on one printable sheet: the full A–Z NATO/ICAO chart with pronunciations, the aviation-style number […]
Police 10-Codes PDF – Free Printable Chart (Download)
If you follow a scanner, you need the codes in front of you, not buried in a browser tab you have to alt-tab back to every thirty seconds. This page gives you exactly that: a free, one-page printable PDF chart with the ten-codes you’ll actually hear, the response codes that set urgency, and the phonetic […]
Police Codes: The Complete List (10-Codes, Signals, Penal & Response Codes)
Type “police codes” into a search bar and you’ll get a dozen different lists that all claim to be definitive, and most of them contradict each other. That’s not because anyone’s lying — it’s because there’s no such thing as a single, universal set of police codes. What exists instead is a sprawling, overlapping family […]
11350 Police Code
“11350” is one of the numbers you’ll hear on a California scanner that isn’t about violence or theft — it’s about drugs. It refers to possession of a controlled substance, and it’s one of the more misunderstood codes out there, partly because the law behind it changed dramatically in recent years. Many code lists online […]
242 Police Code
“242” is one of the codes California officers reach for on a violent call, and it’s the one that specifically means someone was actually struck or touched unlawfully. It’s the code for battery, and understanding it means understanding the fine but important line between it and assault — two words people use interchangeably that the […]
240 Police Code
“240” is the California code for assault, and it names one of the most misunderstood crimes in the whole penal code. Most people think of “assault” as hitting someone — but in California law, an assault can happen without a single touch. This article explains what the 240 police code means, the legal definition that […]