Law enforcement jargon

Law Enforcement Jargon refers to a large body of acronyms, abbreviations, codes and slang used by law enforcement personnel to provide quick concise descriptions of people, places, property and situations, in both spoken and written communication. These vary between countries and to a lesser extent regionally.[1]

United Kingdom

Initialisms

Acronyms

Abbreviations

Other

United States

Numerical and alphanumerical codes

The ten-codes are used only for voice communications, usually radio transmissions and denote commonly used phrases; for example 10-16 means domestic disturbance for some agencies. Use of ten-codes is intended for the clear, quick, and concise communication between law enforcement officers.

The response codes consist of the word "Code" followed by a number; for example "Code 3" means lights and sirens.

Numbers and alphanumeric combinations referring to offenses and actions covered by legal codes are often used both as nouns and verbs in both spoken and written communication. Since each state has its own system of law, this usage varies widely by state. For example, in California, if a suspect is 849B'd, it means they are released from custody after being arrested (instead of being booked into county jail) and refers to section 849(b) of the California Penal Code.

Subject description initialisms

Three letter abbreviations are commonly used to describe subjects mentioned in incident reports. The first letter denotes apparent race/ethnicity; the most commonly used letters are: A—Asian, B—Black, H—Hispanic, O—Other, W—White. The letters PI are occasionally used to denote Pacific Islander resulting in a four letter abbreviation . The second letter denotes gender: F—Female, M—Male. The final letter denotes whether the subject is legally an adult: A—Adult, J—Juvenile. Thus the initialism WFJ (or wfj) appearing after a subject's name in a police log would denote a white female juvenile.

Code violations

*Note: Names for offenses vary by jurisdiction; accordingly, several acronyms may mean the same thing

Initialisms describing situations

Slang terms for police misconduct

Miscellaneous abbreviations and descriptive terms

Miscellaneous acronyms

Miscellaneous abbreviations

Popular culture

Law enforcement jargon is heavily used in police procedurals and similar shows. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, a television series about forensic scientists, uses many acronyms such as AFIS, CODIS and DB.

Some shows, like "Adam-12" and CSI will use the criminal code, for where the show is based, to describe a crime. This would be understood by people from that state or others in the know, but would be nonsense for others.

The numeric code 187 from the California Penal Code section dealing with murder has been featured in numerous songs, including the gangsta rap song Deep Cover by Dr. Dre and the alternative hip hop-ska punk song April 29, 1992 (Miami) by Sublime. It also serves as the title of the movie One Eight Seven. A police drama show called "Detroit 1-8-7" aired in the U.S. on the ABC network in 2010 - 2011, which made no sense because 187 does not denote murder under Michigan law.

External links

References

  1. ↑ "Law Enforcement Terms".
  2. ↑ Evidence in Drugs Cases. Release.
  3. ↑ Dorset Police Performance Report 2011-2012.
  4. ↑ Beggs and Davies. Police Misconduct, Complaints, and Public Regulation. Oxford University Press. 2009. Para 1.39 at p 13.
  5. ↑ Video: Exhausted cops don't give up on the Big Red Key. The Northern Echo.
  6. ↑ Police open doors for Children in Need. North Yorkshire Police.
  7. ↑ Harris, Jessica. An evaluation of the use and effectiveness of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. Home Office Research Study 203. Research, Development and Statistics Directorate. Home Office. ISBN 1 84082 499 9. Page 42.
  8. ↑ Michigan Law and Practice Encyclopedia. 2nd Ed. LEXIS Law Publishing. 2007. Volume 4. Page 424. Google Books.
  9. ↑ Widick, B J. Detroit: City of Race and Class Violence. Wayne State University Press. 1989. Page 181.
  10. ↑ Kenworthy Bilz, "Book Review: The Fall of the Confession Era" (2005) 96 The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 367 JSTOR; Pitts, Giacopassi and Turner, "The Legacy of the OJ Simpson Trial" (2008) 10 Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law 199 Hein; Phillip Walters, "Would a Cop Do This: Ending the Practice of Sexual Sampling in Prostitution Stings" (2011) 29 Law & Inequality 451 Hein.
  11. ↑ "Police slang and jargon". Concealed carry archive
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