What are Police Ten Codes or Law Enforcement Ten Codes?
Ten-codes, 10-codes, also known as law enforcement codes and sometimes "police scanner
codes" are codes used in two-way voice radio communication as numeric code
words for frequently used messages. Ten-codes are used particularly by
law enforcement and in Citizen's Band (CB) radio transmissions. 10
codes originated in the United States law enforcement community before World War II. The first set of 10-codes was
published by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials in 1940. Ten codes were invented to help reduce use of speech on the police radio. Use
of the police radio codes was expanded in 1974 by the Association of Public Safety
Communication Officials (APCO), to allow for brevity and standardization of message traffic.
There is no universal, official set of 10 codes, and the
meanings of a particular 10-code can vary between one police jurisdiction and
another. While law enforcement ten codes were intended to be a concise, and standardized
system, the proliferation of different meanings has rendered it somewhat useless for
situations where people from different agencies and jurisdictions need to
communicate. In 2005, the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) discouraged the use of ten-codes and other law
enforcement codes due to their high variability in meaning. The U.S. Department of Homeland
Security reportedly has plans to do away with 10-codes as well.
Some organizations and municipalities also use other
police radio codes in addition to ten-codes. For example, the California Highway Patrol uses "eleven-codes", and the Port Authority Police uses
"eight codes".
Amateur radio ham operators do not use ten-codes. Instead they use Q codes,
which are derived from Morse code. Ten codes are highly discouraged in
amateur radio use, though they are sometimes used by novice operators.
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List of Police Ten Codes / Law Enforcement Ten Codes