Via The Corner, I saw this interesting story in the Post about how police in Virginia are abandoning their old “10-codes” in favor of plain English communication. (And of course Wikipedia has a great entry on Ten-codes.) So instead of the classic “10-4,” the cops are supposed to say “Message understood.” I don’t see why they can’t use the more-universal codes like “Roger” and “Over,” but that’s just me.
The main reason for this is that it’s confusing when different agencies with different codes have to interact. My favorite example of this is how for one agency “10-54″ “refers to an alcohol sensor,” but for another “it’s livestock on the highway.” (But what if the cow is drunk?) And, in a crisis situation, when officers from many areas are responding, confused codes can cost lives. That all makes sense to me, and the Ten-codes seem obsolete in the modern age. (The story reports that they originated at a time when all police communications were on a single radio channel, so the need for brevity and clarity was apparent.) And the Wiki link has some articles indicating that this is indeed a trend that seems to be accelerating.
But, naturally, lots of rank-and-file officers are resisting the shift away from the Ten-codes. Partly they just don’t want to drop the habit they’ve developed. But reading the comments in the article, it’s clear that a lot of them don’t want to drop the Ten-codes because they’re cool. Or, at least, insider cop-talk jargon like we saw in “Adam-12″ and “Dragnet.” And they don’t want the public to know what they’re talking about. It preserves some of the mystique, and having your own lingo is one of the perks of the job, along with the badge and gun and mustache.
I guess I don’t have a lot of sympathy for some police officer who gets upset at any dork with a scanner knowing he’s taking a bathroom break when he’s “going 10-49,” instead of making it seem like he’s on some secret black ops mission. (The powers that be reassure us that they will retain some codes for actual secret information, like terrorism suspects in custody.) I try not to rely on legalese, and I don’t think there’s any great reason for the police to use jargon and codes as a barrier to public information (or worse, as a tool for dissembling or intimidation). But the passing of the Ten-codes is also the death of part of the pop culture patois. So while I might 10-4 the reasons for giving the Ten-codes the 10-7, I can’t give the move my complete 10-2.