RHYS SAUNDERS| State Journal-Register
Disregard any rumors you’ve heard about local law enforcement abandoning police radio 10-codes. Or, as the police would put it, 10-22 on that.
The tried-and-true communications system will remain 10-8 in Sangamon County despite neighboring Christian County’s shift toward using plainer language.
The change in scanner speak — 10-22 means “disregard,” and 10-8 is “in service” — is part of a directive issued through the National Incident Management System, a federally developed system aimed at helping national, state and local agencies cohesively respond to large-scale emergencies.
Yet, many local police departments continue to use the familiar 10-code system, reverting to plain language only in situations that involve combined efforts involving several different agencies.
“Every agency can do what they want to do locally, but at large-scale operations we need to speak in the clear and avoid the codes,” said Clay Dowis, deputy chief with the Springfield Police Department.
“For a sense of brevity on the radio, (10-codes are) much quicker, and if people are listening, the criminal element will be confused by our use of codes sometimes,” he added. “In our job, a few seconds can make a difference between someone getting hurt and someone not getting hurt.”
That compromise seems to be OK with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“It is required that plain language be used for multi-agency, multi-jurisdiction and multi-discipline events, such as major disasters and exercises,” Seamus O’Boyle, a public affairs specialist with FEMA, said via e-mail.
About three years ago, O’Boyle said, the government began requiring first-responder agencies to use plain language during “incidents requiring assistance from responders from other agencies, jurisdictions and functional disciplines” in order to receive federal preparedness grant funding.
Because one agency’s 10-code can differ from another’s, the code’s simplicity and speed is lost when several agencies respond to the same emergency, he noted.
“While plain language is not required for internal operations, it is encouraged over 10-codes to promote familiarity within operational procedures used in emergencies,” O’Boyle said.
David Butt, director of the Sangamon County Office of Emergency Management, said the standardization of plain language also ensures the federal government can quickly step in during an emergency.
“In the past four to five years, first responders all over the country have been taking (Incident Command System) training, and the intention of that is that when an event occurs anywhere in the country, it will be handled under the same protocols and procedures,” he said. “If the federal government needed to come in and participate in that activity, the federal way of doing business would already be set up and operating.”
Christian County Sheriff Robert Kindermann says changing the way his deputies communicate on the radio hasn’t been difficult and should pay off if an incident involving several agencies should arise. His agency began making the switch in May, but deputies still use some common 10-codes.
“We’re trying to use common language more frequently, but we still do use some of the 10-codes for our own office operations,” he said. “It’s not really a rough transition, but it’s a different way of communicating than we have had in the past.”
“We think that communicating accurately is important and, especially when it comes to assisting other agencies or getting mutual aid from other agencies, everyone is going to understand what the message is. If they don’t understand they can ask for clarification.”
Taking out the guesswork, Kindermann says, will save valuable time by eliminating confusion. But at the same time, Kindermann says he’s not opposed to agencies using 10-code for their own local operations.
“There are no detriments at all,” he said. “That’s up to each individual agency.”
Other agencies, such as the Illinois State Police, also are cutting back on their use of 10-codes but not cutting it out entirely.
State police Capt. Scott Compton said that while his department uses plain language during traffic stops and situations involving multiple agencies, the 10-codes “we do use are pretty common across-the-board.”
“We still say ‘10-4’ instead of ‘yes,’” he said, adding, “It’s not very common that we use 10-codes.”
Much like the Springfield Police Department, the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office continues to champion the 10-code for day-to-day operations.
“Some responders, some cities and counties had different codes, and they were not interchangeable,” explained Sangamon County Sheriff Neil Williamson. “What may be a 10-50 (traffic accident) to us may be something to another agency. But we use the standard, which is used throughout the United States.”
Chief Deputy Jack Campbell said deputies are trained to use plain language during emergency situations, adding that 10-codes help minimize radio traffic.
“We’re torn because we need to go to this (plain language) method of communication that will make it easier to communicate with other agencies,” he said. “But we’re kind of stuck in the middle in wanting to keep our guys safe and to keep the frequency freed up.”
Dowis said the federal government initially pushed police agencies to drop the codes altogether, but many were reluctant to do so for their day-to-day operations.
“The chances of one of those (multi-jurisdictional) events coming here really would not justify us changing our day-to-day operations and clogging up our radio station with a bunch of words that we don’t need to put on the radio station,” he said. “I’ve been in charge of a bunch of our larger details, such as presidential visits and tornadoes, and we’ve never had a problem with the 10-codes interspersed in our language.”
Rhys Saunders can be reached at 788-1521.
Some 10-codes used in Sangamon County
- 10-4: Acknowledgement
- 10-8: In service
- 10-10: Fight in progress
- 10-16: Domestic problem
- 10-18: Quickly
- 10-22: Disregard
- 10-31: Crime in progress
- 10-32: Man with a gun
- 10-33: Emergency
- 10-34: Riot
- 10-35: Major crime alert
- 10-43: Information
- 10-46: Assist motorist
- 10-50: Traffic accident
- 10-52: Ambulance needed
- 10-55: Intoxicated driver
- 10-56: Intoxicated pedestrian
- 10-70: Fire alarm
- 10-79: Notify coroner
- 10-89: Bomb threat
- 10-96: Mental subject
