Copyright 2005 THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
By MARY C. SCHNEIDAU
Washington Bureau
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS (Texas)
WASHINGTON — If only the federal government had been listening, it might have offered up a 10-4 to acknowledge message received.
But instead of recognizing it as a 10-0 (use caution) situation, the Department of Homeland Security in May ordered local police and fire departments to abandon daily use of radio 10-codes - familiar to millions of Americans because of TV cop shows. The measure got a poor reception (a 10-1, as police devotees know).
Amid the protests, the government backed off just a bit, allowing departments to communicate internally with 10-codes on a day-to-day basis. But by October 2007, they’ll risk losing federal preparedness grants if they don’t speak in plain English when working with other departments during emergencies.
For a while, at least, old habits may be hard to break. “In stressful situations, people react to how they’ve been trained,” said James McLaughlin, executive director of the Texas Police Chiefs Association.
But the 10-code is dying among junior officers and complicates multijurisdictional responses. Already, the Texas Rangers and DPS don’t use code, spokeswoman Tela Mange said.
“It’s just common sense when you’re speaking to another department, you speak in plain English,” said Senior Cpl. Donna Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the Dallas Police Department, which uses its own “signal code.” A loud music call, for example, is a signal 6.
Dallas Fire-Rescue uses an entirely different lingo but will adapt to the federally ordered changes, Lt. Joel Lavender said. “If there are changes that need to be made so that everyone’s on the same page when it comes to communication, we’re all ears,” he said.
The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department has used plain language for more than 20 years, Sgt. Don Peritz said.
Joe Rios, a spokesman for the San Antonio police, said the transition should not be difficult. “We’re going to talk over the radio like we’d talk over the phone,” he said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Homeland Security branch that issued the “plain language” directive, had hoped for that kind of response.
“It’s about public safety and saving lives,” said FEMA spokeswoman Mary Margaret Walker. “We expect that over time it will catch on.”
Decoding law enforcement lingo is just one facet of the National Incident Management System, a sweeping plan to streamline and coordinate disaster response.
Concerns about 10-codes arose because only a handful of the more than 200 codes that exist are standardized across the country.
The 10-codes were developed in 1937 by the Association of Public Safety Communication Officials as a way to easily communicate common messages over the radio.
Since then, 10-codes have been adapted to fit the needs of individual departments.
While code may be important at times to prevent suspects or criminals from knowing what police are saying, many officials say most people know the codes.
Law enforcement, despite laggards in its ranks, will eventually use simple English in multijurisdictional emergency responses, said Gene Voegtlin, legislative counsel for the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
“Officers go home at the end of the day. They don’t speak to their families in code. They have the ability to switch,” he said. “Is it going to be perfect every single time? No. But that would have been the case either way.”
Lisa O’Neill Hill of The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., contributed to this report.