Police Dropping "Code", Now Using English...

[ChefChiTown]

Catch a cop show over the past several decades and these strings of numbers barked over police radios might sound familiar:

"1-Adam-12, a 4-15 fight." ..."We have a 9-11. Armed robbery in progress."

Or in the words of the bumbling Barney Fife: "Mayberry Unit No. 1 over and, uh, Roger. Roger. Out and under. 10-40. Bye."

But many real-life police departments are ditching the digits, replacing the lingo with plain English.

In Dallas, that means so long "7," hello "***** accident."

Today, the Dallas Police Department moves to a new plain-language system that's supposed to make communications more universal and less complicated. No more of those distinctive radio codes or signals.

The department says it's following a nationwide trend, but some call it the end of an era.

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I thought police departments used "code" to avoid any confusion from mumbled words, misinterpretations, etc. That's why police officers don't say letters when they read license plate numbers; they use words to help prevent any communication mistakes.

I don't think this is utlimately a big deal, but I don't think that it's necessary either.