Tradition vs. Ten Codes
Tim Dees
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com
Ye Olde Cop Web Site Editor got some incidental press today when he was quoted in an article for the Washington Post. The article was concerned with the recent edict of the Virginia State Police to its members, requiring that they switch from what is typically called the “ten code” to “plain speech” in their radio communications.
I wrote about this evolutionary milepost last year in an editorial, one of the first I published after coming to Officer.com. Obviously, it is still taking hold across the country, in no special progression or pattern. It is going to be difficult for the Virginia troopers, as it has been for every other law enforcement officer in the country that has been required to make the change.
Radio codes have largely outlived their usefulness, mostly due to improvements in technology. Brevity is not as important as it used to be, as there are more radio channels to use than in the early days of wireless public safety communications. Transmissions are clearer, so the “punch” of a hard consonant isn’t needed to be understood. And the crooks usually know most of the codes, anyway.
Lou Mayo of the Police Association for College Education (PACE) made another observation about why ten codes came into use. The early police radios had transmitters powered by a mechanical magneto. One of the ambulances I drove during my college EMT days still had this type of transmitter. When the radio operator pressed the transmit key, the magneto had to “spin up” before the transmission could be heard on the receiving end. The sound was a little like a kitchen blender turning on and off. Mayo says that the ten code was so that there would be a slight pause (the “ten” part) before the critical portion of the transmission was spoken, to allow the magneto to reach operating speed. I’d never heard this explanation before, but it makes sense.
But the biggest change is going to be a cultural one. Radio codes are part of the jargon that cops use to set themselves apart from common citizens. There will still be slang that doesn’t have anything to do with radio codes, of course. Depending on what part of the country you’re in, the local cops will have a “duck pond,” “cherry patch,” or “cash register” to visit when things get slow on the street. All of these are terms for locations where traffic violations are very common, and an officer can find a number of moving violations to write in a short time, and with little effort.
One night, a fellow officer had been called to the scene of a burglary, and I was the designated crime scene investigator (which was, and is, nothing like the assignments you see on the eponymous television shows). I called him on the radio to ask if he would be requiring my services. He replied, “Negative, entry was by BFR.” That one was new on me, so I drove over to his crime scene, anyway, just to find out what a “BFR” was. He was amazed to learn that I didn’t know the politically correct term for Big F***ing Rock.
But the classic example of how cops respond to directives to abandon radio codes in favor of plain speech came about on another graveyard patrol shift. We had a K-9 officer named, believe or not, Billy Barks. When you absolutely, positively needed to find out if and where there was a bad guy in a building, Billy and his furry partner Kimo were the ones you called. There was no one better.
Our police chief, depite having been at our agency for several years, had apparently never listened to the police radio before. When he did, he was incensed to discover that he didn’t know what we were saying. He had previously been a cop in the same city where I had gone to college and been a police dispatcher, so we both started out using the same ten code, but the department where we both ended up used a different version. I had made the transition, but he found it too inconvenient. Thus, he decreed that from that moment forward, ten codes were banned from the airwaves in favor of plain speech.
A few days after the issuance of the order, Billy was clearing from a call.
- Billy: Reno, what am I supposed to say when I’m 10-8?
- Dispatch: [understanding the meaning of “10-8,” but unable to remember the words] [long silence]
- Me: [trying to be helpful] In service.
- Billy: Hey, thanks, Timmy! Reno, I’m 10-8.
We went back to ten codes a few days later. Maybe the Virginia State Police will, too.
Hi, Tim!
Your Billy Barks story about the 10-codes was great! I laughed out loud.
About the magneto story…the magneto had nothing to do with the codes…you were correct in saying they were for brevity. Back in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, you might have a dozen departments sharing one frequency, so they developed codes to keep transmissions brief so everyone could get a crack at the airtime. As technology improved and more frequencies became available, you’d have fewer departments sharing one channel (although channel sharing continues to this day). Originally, there was just one channel, then a few more became available until departments could have more than one, giving them a channel where they could accomodate officers talking to one another without interfering with everyone’s dispatch services.
Something your magneto story brought up that doesn’t seem to be generally known is there are reasons to pause between pressing the transmit switch and speaking your first word. With modern repeater systems, the repeater has to “grab” the signal from the portable or base, change it to a different frequency, then transmit it to the intended recipients. There is usually a brief moment after pressing the transmit switch before the repeater grabs the signal. If you speak before the repeater gets it, your first word will be cut off. I always tell people to press the switch and count 1-1000 to themselves before actually speaking. There is also a brief moment after a transmission before the repeater lets go of the signal, and that’s why you can often hear a bit of static noise for a second when you let go of the transmit switch.
Getting back to the codes, many officers think codes were developed to keep communications a secret from whomever might be listening in, but that was never the reason. However, there are ways to restrict communications. Remember scramblers? Some departments still use them. The modern way is to go digital with encryption. Nothing is foolproof, but there are very few bad guys who will invest the time and money to tap into digitally encrypted communications.
I’m all for speaking English on the radio.
BTW, the reason I’m throwing my 2 cents into this is that, before getting snared into law enforcement, I spent quite a few years in the broadcast field, including time as an engineer.
Damn! This was way longer than I intended. Sorry.
We just went to “Plain Talk” after 40 years of ten codes, At first it was a little hard to get used to, but now everyone is adjusting. Even us older, set in our ways guys. ha.
Why not keep local 10 codes, and switch to plain english only when working with other departments on the same frequency ?
Washington Post article was inaccurate. I work for the Chesterfield County Police Dept. We have 500 officers and we are a suburb of Richmond. We stopped using the ten codes over three years ago for the same reasons. VA State PD is not the first agency in VA. Not sure who is.
I’m all for switching to plain English. When officers complain that it’s tough switching, just remind them that at one time, they had to learn and memorize the codes. That required a little bit of a leaning curve and this will be no different. Also, they are “discarding a habit”, not “learning a new language”. After all, plain English should already be the language they’re most familiar with.
Some people just like to hear themselves talk on the radio way to much. 10-codes forces them to leave some airtime for the rest of the shift.
Some officers talk way too much even with 10 codes.
Our agency went to plain talk about a year ago. Most of us still use ten codes out of habit with some plain langauge. When it really hits the fan, every goes right back to ten codes. I prefer ten codes. Maybe due to using it for 12 years.
Recently our agency also went to “plain talk”, from the “10″ codes. Simply put some officers, just plain ol’ cannot talk on the radio. It takes them forever and a day to get the message out, without the structure of the “10″ code system. I like the “10″ codes, keeping in mind I have never been accused of being short winded in any situation. Who cares if the bad guys understand the “10″ codes, that was not their designed purpose anyway.
While ‘plain talk’ is good, I guess I am from the old school or maybe it is just because of habit but I think that a combination of the 10 code and plain talk usually works best. The key is to standardize the code nationwide. I can see some problems in that as well but you could avoid that by making the 10 code only for use of the more common meanings. The codes for particuliar offenses could be done away with but keep the ones for things like accident, accident with injuries, in and out of service, location, and especially officer needs help or shots fired! I know, I should take my retirement and go quitely now but it still makes sense to me.
The ten codes in my town of cary, Illinois are very limited to 10-8 for in service, 10-6 for dont disturb on paper, 10-4 for ok or copy, and 10-23 for arrived on location. I personaly think that 10-codes are very helpful in the freeing up in air traffic, but between depatments it could get confusing. I know that the fire departments dont use the ten codes anymore and it still seems to be ok with air traffic and free of confusion. My question is that no matter how much pressure their is to change the 10-codes do you think that they will ever go away. will it be like what happened with morse code. thanks, Randy
I’m from a small town in northern Wisconsin where one of the three motels in town is known as the “Ten-Seven Motel.” This is also a town where a very large percentage of the households have police scanners on throughout the day. Folks in town know the 10-codes by heart and take no small amount of pride in this. If our local police switched to “plain talk,” I think many of the scanner folks would be disappointed. Heck, I know I would be. Knowing the 10-codes is sort of like knowing a foreign language. This feeling may be limited to small towns with exceptionally high scanner-per-household rates. I’m 10-7.
First of all there is always room for as much brevity on a police radio as possible no matter how many officers are using the channel. I don’t care if your department has 100 channels in use if one guy is talking to much on one channel and another officer on that channel needs help then I would say the brevity of ten codes would be worth it if even that one time. How short sighted to think more channels allows for more talking. And by the way, not all criminals know ten code so if we even keep one dirtbag from knowing what we are saying that would make it worth keeping the ten codes.