50 Most Common Police Codes and What They Mean
There are close to a hundred ten-codes on the books, plus response codes, signals, and penal codes stacked on top. Almost none of that matters for following a scanner. Real police radio runs on a small core of codes that repeat endlessly, and once you know those, the rest is occasional detail you can look […]
Police Phonetic Alphabet Chart A–Z (Free Printable)
Over a radio, “B” and “D” and “V” and “P” and “T” all sound roughly the same. Add engine noise, wind, a siren, and a compressed digital signal, and a single misheard letter turns a licence plate into the wrong car and a surname into the wrong person. The phonetic alphabet exists to make that […]
How to Read Police Scanner Codes – Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
You’ve got your scanner tuned to the right frequency. Traffic is coming through clearly. And then you hear: “Unit 42, show me 10-8. We’ve got a 10-32 at the corner of Fifth and Main, Code 3. 10-4?” If that sounds like a foreign language to you, don’t worry — it felt the same way to […]
What Police Scanner Frequencies Should I Use? – Beginner’s Guide
So you’ve just picked up your first police scanner — or you’re thinking about getting one — and you’re staring at a dial (or a settings screen) wondering: where do I even start? You’re not alone. Police scanner frequencies can feel overwhelming at first glance. There are dozens of frequency bands, multiple signal formats, and […]
10-Codes vs 11-Codes vs Penal Codes: What’s the Difference?
Listen to a police scanner for more than a few minutes and you’ll hear a jumble of numbers: “10-4,” “11-99,” “we’ve got a 459 in progress.” They sound like one system, but they’re actually three different families of code, each with its own history, purpose, and territory. Confusing them is one of the most common […]
Why Do Police Say “10-4”? Meaning and Origin
“10-4” is the one police code almost everyone knows. It’s turned up in films, in trucker slang, in casual conversation, and in a thousand cop shows. But few people know what it actually means with precision, or the oddly specific piece of 1930s radio technology that explains why it starts with “ten.” This article covers […]
Florida Police Codes and Signals Explained
Florida sounds different on the radio. Where most of the country built its police shorthand around ten-codes, Florida agencies talk in signals — “Signal 4,” “Signal 7,” “Signal 20” — a system that traces back to the 1950s and still dominates the state’s channels today. This guide explains how Florida’s signals and codes actually work, […]
What Does “10-42” Mean? The Police End-of-Watch Code Explained
Most police codes are strictly practical — a plate check, a location request, a traffic stop. 10-42 starts out that way too, meaning simply that an officer is ending their shift. But it has taken on a second meaning that gives it more weight than almost any other code in law enforcement: it’s the code […]
What Does Police Code 10-32 Mean? (Person With a Gun)
If you’ve heard “10-32” crackle across a police scanner, you’ve heard one of the codes that makes officers tense up. In most of the country it means a person with a gun — an armed individual on scene — and it changes how officers approach a call. This article explains what 10-32 means, how officers […]
What Is Code 7 in Police? All Meal Break Codes Explained
Among all the urgent-sounding numbers on a police channel, there’s one that’s refreshingly ordinary: the code an officer uses to go grab lunch. In much of the country, that’s Code 7. This article explains what Code 7 means, why officers have a dedicated code just for eating, how it works in practice, and the surprising […]