[Scan-DC] Anniston police drop codes during dispatch calls

[Bob W4NNG]

Besides the '10' codes, there's also other forms that I hear like 'occupied 
4 times by number 2 males'

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alan Henney" <alan at henney.com>
To: "Scan DC" <Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, May 30, 2011 8:14 PM
Subject: [Scan-DC] Anniston police drop codes during dispatch calls



The Associated Press State & Local Wire

May 30, 2011 Monday 5:06 PM GMT

Anniston police drop codes during dispatch calls

BYLINE: By CAMERON STEELE, The Anniston Star

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL

LENGTH: 851 words

DATELINE: ANNISTON Ala.

It's been five years since the federal government suggested police agencies 
across the country retire their "10-4s" and code speak for plain English 
during dispatch calls.

But only one local agency has followed that recommendation and made the 
switch from the so-called "10-codes" to asking officers who call in incident 
reports to use regular, everyday English words.

For the past year, Anniston police have reported robberies, responded to 
assault scenes and called in for back-up using this plain-speech protocol. 
And officials with the department say they'll continue to stick with plain 
old English in the future, too.

"It just makes things simpler," Anniston police Chief Layton McGrady said. 
"And in stressful situations, plain talk was what you were going to fall 
back on anyway."

Allen George, an Anniston lieutenant, spent much of his time during the week 
following the April tornadoes assisting other public safety agencies in 
search-and-rescue efforts.

"It's necessary. Like with the tornado, when you start dealing with other 
agencies from outside the area, you start using 10-codes that are different, 
and plain speak becomes necessary as far as intercommunication," George 
said.

Different agencies use different codes. For example, Oxford police use 
"10-68" when responding to a report of gun-shots fired, but state troopers 
use that number to mean "present a written report," Oxford Sgt. L.G. Owens 
said.

The necessity of plain speech became apparent nationally first after Sept. 
11 and then later after Hurricane Katrina, when police departments from 
across the states of New York and Louisiana responded to the tragedies and 
struggled to communicate effectively, largely because of mismatched 
10-codes, a 2006 report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security 
documents.

As a result, the department began to "strongly encourage" plain speech for 
internal operations, although it has not made the communication protocol a 
requirement.

The 2006 report noted the switch from 10-codes to plain speak would be a 
long-term effort.

"It is probably not possible to persuade everyone to change ingrained habits 
overnight," the report states.

Aside from Anniston police, most local agencies have yet to be persuaded to 
give up their coded police talk. Oxford, Jacksonville and Weaver police have 
all hung on to their 10-codes. So have Alabama State Troopers. The protocol 
used at the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office was unclear, because attempts to 
reach officials there Tuesday were un-successful.

Those agencies who still communicate over their radios with strings of 
"10-88s," "10-68s," and 10-93s" use the codes for their brevity, their 
departmental familiarity and public unfamiliarity, officials said.

"With codes, you get your message out quicker, they're brief, and it ties up 
less air traffic," Owens said. "We're comfortable with the way our radio 
operations work."

And the Jacksonville Police Department's assistant chief said he doesn't 
think Anniston's move to plain speech has set any sort of precedent for 
other local agencies to do the same.

"If you'll listen to Anniston, Anniston will say, `659, traffic stop, blue 
Honda, tag number,' and it rattles on and on and on," Bill Wineman, the 
Jacksonville assistant chief said. "And we'll say, `659. 10-39.' It means 
exactly the same thing, and it's very quick."

Codes began in the late 1920s and became popular in the 1970s as ways for 
officers to communicate each other using radio channels that were scarce and 
numerical signals that wouldn't alarm members of the community who were 
listening to dispatch calls on scanners, officials said.

But Calhoun County's encrypted 800-megahertz digital radio system has 
largely done away with residents' ability to listen in, and Anniston police 
officials say plain speech is every bit as brief as the old codes.

"The thing about it is that we found out we were using the 10-code and then 
explaining in English," McGrady said. "Plain talk actually shortens the 
radio time up; you would think that you could spit out a few 10-codes, but 
by the time you say the code, give a car description, and so on, well, you 
might as well just say: `Check a warrant .'"

Owens said he felt there were advantages and disadvantages to both the coded 
and plain speech systems.

The clear advantage that all police agree plain speech has is that it 
fosters better communication between various agencies during large-scale 
emergencies.

"If you got several different agencies around, like in a federal disaster, 
it's handy," Alabama Trooper Chad Joiner said.

But no local agencies plan to give up their codes any time soon.

"Plain talk just takes too long to get out," Weaver police Sgt. Tim Miller 
said.

"No, we'll never switch over to full plain talk," Wineman agreed.

While some Anniston police veterans like George aren't fully used to calling 
out words like "robbery" or "murder" over the radios, they support the 
departmental decision to abandon the use of codes.

"It's the way everybody else in the country is going - what the federal 
government suggests," George said.

Information from: The Anniston Star, http://www.annistonstar.com
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