Police Codes and Signals Basic Training

Police Codes and Signals Basics

I’ve been asked by many for tips that would apply to all Police Radio Codes and Signals in every state. This is important as most all the time we don’t have the luxury of being able to replay what we’ve just heard. In addition, especially when just beginning there is always a large amount of confusion when trying to decipher what we are hearing on our Police Radio Scanners. As a result I’ve come up with a few Scanning Tips that hold true most of the time. I’ll continue to add or grow this list time permitting.

One of the most important things is when the Police Officer or Dispatcher ends a statement or call. Quite often it may end with the time. This is where you need to understand they use the 24 hour formatted time or Military Time. For example if they say Thirteen Hundred they mean 1:00PM, not Police activity code 1300.

Another Scanning Tip is that when you begin listening remember that the first number you hear on the call will usually be the Unit number. This is the number used to identify either an individual Police Officer or a Police Car and the Officers assigned to it.

Here are some easy links to our Local Police Codes Lists.

Please visit my About PoliceCodes.org page before you leave.

This is a list of Police Codes Police 10 Code Listing.

This is a list of Local Police Codes called Police 11 Codes.

Police Codes listed from 14 – 99 Police Codes 14-99.

Make sure you know the Police Officer’s Phonetic Alphabet.

Here is a straight forward Police Officer’s Code of Ethics.

Many People look for different Codes. Take my Police Code Poll.