Please forgive me if Cecil has already brushed upon this topic, but the search engine kept timing out on me.
Anyhow,
What’s the deal with the police ten-code? You know, the one that says “10-4” means “Acknowledgment (OK)” and “10-50” means “accident,” etc, etc, etc… I’ve seen the list of 10-0 to 10-99 and I just wanted to know, when did it start, who started it, who arranged the numbers, is the ten-code the same everywhere in the States? Is it used at all outside the States (Canada perhaps?) And why? Is it just so Mr. Joe Civilian with a scanner can’t understand what cops are saying, or what? And why the number “10”? Why not a “three code.”
You get the point.
According to a reference I have (The Writer’s Complete Crime Reference Book by Martin Roth) there’s a nine code and a ten code. No information about their origins, but this book says the ten code is more popular and is sanctioned by an organization called the Association of Police Communications Officers. And it’s not designed to be a secret code; its intent is to speed and clarify transmissions.
Little Nemo has got it - the 10-Code is used to speed up air communication. When you’ve got an emergency or some other situation going on, you pretty much need to get as much information across as quickly as possible.
Which is not to say it’s a secret code, either. I was a young’un back in the early to mid-70s, but one of the few things I remember clearly is Citizens’ Band radio. This was back in the day when even CB operators needed a license to operate one… KARC-8578 was ours. (Why do I remember that?)
Anyway, CB folk used the 10-Code just as frequently as the emergency and law enforcement folks did, so anyone who’s been in communications since then (folks with scanners, ham operators, and the like) know what the other guy’s talking about, if they’re involved in the situation or just listening in.
I’m stil not convinced. So saying “10-4” is clearer than saying “OK” or “roger?” And “10-50” is better than “accident?” And “We have a 10-34 in progress” rather than “There a riot” is more understandable? Somehow I don’t buy this completely. Why don’t international forces use it then? The reason I’ve come up with this question, is that I just got back from hanging out with the int’l police in Kosovo (UNMIK CIVPOL) and the Americans said that if they really wanted to screw with everyone else they’d talk in ten code. Leaving me to believe that it’s kind of pointless, if they can get around without it fine. To me it seems like just a cool way of talking for a bunch of people in a club of sorts. No?
I will speculate without any information whatsoever that the 10-codes originated during Morse code days when character length was more important than syllable length.
International forces don’t use it because it was never intended for use by them. It was something developed by firefighters and law enforcement here in the States to help speed up their radio communication. AFAIK, and that’s not very far at all, the American armed forces don’t use it.
What them thar boys in the Balkans call “Ten-Code” is probably an adaptation that they use to communicate other things than important situations. For instance, “Check out those hot Albanian chicks on the corner.”
The “10” system was certainly in use here in Canada. My father was in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Ident: fingerprints and photography) for 30 years, and as a kid in the late 60’s I often got to go along in the unmarked PC (my mother worked shift as an RN), rather than get left home alone.
I recall very clearly Dad using the “10” system on the radio. This would have been circa 1967-70. I remember getting a card, about 2" by 6", out of the radio room at the detachment, with about 35 different messages used by the RCMP at that time (with English one one side, French on the other). Don’t think I still have it, unfortunately.
Wait one…just found this link to radio codes.
http://www.pimall.com/nais/n.radio.code.html
“Well, boys…looks like we got us a 288a.”
Hams don’t use 10 codes. In fact, a lot of them (us) will be rather condescending if you use them. Hams use Q codes, which did develop in the days of Morse Code. In Canada you are expected to have a basic knowledge of Q codes and their are several questions on the license exam devoted to them. Some of them are QTH for location, QRM for man made interference QRN for natural interference. 10 codes would not have been practical on code because numbers are much longer than letters in Morse code. Most police forces don’t really use them as much as they do on TV. In fact, most 10 codes aren’t universal, so there could be some confusion in multijuristictional operations.
Keith
VE5KIS
BTW Odie, the period of time that I referred to above, we were in Yorkton!
its strange, not all 10 codes are the same around the nation/world. In the small backward town I work in as a firefigher/emt an acident is a 10-44 or a 10-45, a 44 for no injuries, a 45 is with injuries.
I, uh… knew that. Honest I did, I just forgot. Really.
Hmmm…
Seems we have nothing coming close to a definitive reply yet… and I just need to know.
Cecil, we beseech thee for thy wisdom! 