You’ve probably encountered “187” without knowing where it came from — in a rap lyric, a film title, a video game, or a threat in a movie. It’s shorthand for murder, and almost everyone recognises it that way. But the number has a precise origin most people never learn, and there’s a real gap between what “187” means as slang and what it means as law. This article explains both: the legal definition behind the number, how murder is actually classified, and how three digits from a California law book became universal shorthand for killing.
The short answer: “187” means murder. It comes from Section 187 of the California Penal Code, the law that defines the crime of murder. Over decades, it escaped the legal world and became slang understood far beyond California and far beyond policing.
The Legal Meaning Behind 187
Section 187 of the California Penal Code defines murder as the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought. That phrase is the legal heart of the definition, and it’s what separates murder from other kinds of killing. Malice aforethought doesn’t necessarily mean long premeditation — it refers to a particular state of mind. It can be express, meaning a deliberate intention to kill, or implied, meaning a conscious disregard for human life even without a specific intent to end it. Either can satisfy the definition.
This matters because not every killing is a murder. The law distinguishes murder from manslaughter, which involves a killing without malice aforethought — for instance, in the heat of passion or through criminal negligence. It also recognises justifiable and excusable killings, such as lawful self-defence, which aren’t murder at all. So “187,” strictly speaking, refers specifically to murder as the statute defines it, not to every death or every homicide.
Because the definition is precise, the number that references it is precise too, at least in its original legal context. When California law enforcement uses 187, they mean this crime, defined this way. Our overview of US police codes explains how California came to use statute numbers like this as everyday shorthand.
Degrees of Murder
Calling something a murder is only the first step; the law then sorts murders by degree, and the degree carries enormous consequences for punishment.
First-degree murder covers killings that are willful, deliberate, and premeditated. It also includes murders committed in particular ways or during the commission of certain serious felonies — the felony-murder concept, where a death during a dangerous felony like robbery or burglary can be charged as first-degree murder even without a specific intent to kill.
Second-degree murder covers intentional killings that don’t meet the first-degree criteria — killings committed with malice aforethought but without the willful, deliberate, premeditated character or the felony circumstances that elevate them.
The number 187 itself doesn’t specify the degree. It names the crime; the facts of the case and the way it’s charged determine whether it’s first or second degree. Penalties range widely as a result, and can reach life imprisonment. This is why the bare number, dramatic as it sounds, is only a starting point — the legal weight lives in the details the statute and the courts apply.
Why the Number Comes From California
People are often surprised that a universally recognised term for murder comes from one specific state’s law book. The reason is that California law enforcement has a distinctive habit: officers use Penal Code section numbers as radio shorthand, speaking the statute number to name a crime. In that system, 187 is simply the section that happens to define murder, sitting alongside other spoken codes:
| Number | Crime (California Penal Code) |
|---|---|
| 187 | Murder |
| 211 | Robbery |
| 245 | Assault with a deadly weapon |
| 459 | Burglary |
| 487 | Grand theft |
None of these is a “code” invented for communication — they’re citations to the law that officers happen to say aloud. 187 became the famous one because of what it names. Our US 10-codes guide and US police code category explain how this penal-code habit fits alongside the other families of police radio shorthand.
It also means 187 is jurisdiction-specific as an official term. Other states number their murder statutes differently, so “187” as an official code points to California. Everywhere else, the number lives on purely as slang — which is where most people meet it.
How 187 Became Slang
The journey from statute to street term ran mainly through music. In the late 1980s and 1990s, West Coast hip-hop artists used “187” to reference killing, weaving it into lyrics and titles. Because the number was compact, cryptic, and carried the authority of real police usage, it spread quickly. Once it was in the music, it moved into the broader culture — a 1997 film took 187 as its title, and the number appeared across television, games, and everyday slang as shorthand for murder or a death threat.
The effect was to give 187 a second life entirely independent of the law. Millions of people now recognise “187” as meaning murder without any idea that it’s a California statute, or that it has a formal legal definition involving malice aforethought and degrees. The cultural meaning became detached from and much larger than the legal one.
This is unusual. Most legal citations and police codes stay locked inside their professional worlds. 187 is one of the rare cases where a piece of specialised jargon became genuinely common language, recognised across regions and generations that have no connection to California policing.
The Gap Between Slang and Statute
Understanding 187 means holding two truths at once.
As slang, 187 means murder, everywhere. It’s understood across the country and beyond as shorthand for killing, because that meaning travelled through media and music rather than through law. In this sense the number is universal.
As an official code, 187 belongs to California. It’s Section 187 of the California Penal Code, and its formal standing exists only where California law or California-derived radio conventions apply. A murder charged in another state is not a “187” under that state’s law.
The two rarely confuse casual use, because the slang meaning is clear regardless of geography. But it does lead to a common misconception: that 187 is a nationwide police code. It isn’t. It’s a California statute that became national slang — a distinction worth keeping straight, especially for writers aiming for accuracy, since a character treating “187” as an official code outside California is a subtle error. The master police code list page shows how differently jurisdictions number their laws.
Why Any of This Matters
Knowing what 187 really means adds depth to something most people only half-understand. It’s not a random number chosen for menace; it’s a specific legal reference with a precise definition, degrees, and consequences that happened to break out of the law book and into the culture. Recognising the difference between the slang and the statute helps you read the number accurately whether you encounter it in a song, a script, or a news report.
It’s also worth pausing on what the number actually names. Behind the pop-culture familiarity of “187” is the gravest crime in the code — the unlawful taking of a life — and the many people a single such act affects. The casual recognisability of the term can obscure that weight. The law uses a bare number for efficiency; the reality it points to is anything but casual.
Using Police Code to Explore Further
Police Code is a global police code explorer that keeps meanings like this one accurate and in context — separating what a number means as slang from what it means as law, and showing where each applies. Instead of assuming 187 is a universal police code because it’s famous, you can look up how it’s actually used, how it relates to other codes, and how California’s system compares to the rest of the country and the world. It’s free to browse and built for scanner listeners, journalists, writers, and the simply curious.
If this subject is a heavy one for you — because of grief or the aftermath of violence — it’s completely fine to set it aside, and support is available through people and services you trust.