Index 313 - A List of Infrequently Used Police Radio Codes

I have always been fascinated by the strange set of numbered codes used by police officers to communicate and abbreviate an incident, accident or sum up the plot of a Law & Order episode when in radio contact with one another. Over the past few years, manning my homemade police-scanner for any early signs of a 727 ("Living Dead Outbreak"), I have learned to take a certain delight in hearing the terse Gematria invoked by over-worked peace officer through the static, their tinny ghost voices barking back in forth in a language of hyphenated numbers and phonetic alphabets. I have come to enjoy the sordid chain of events behind a good 311 ("Indecent Exposure"), have thrilled to the details of an a 11-60 unfolding ("Attack in high hazard area") or an 11-56 in progress ("Officer being followed by auto with dangerous persons") and of course when occasion permited, laughed at the delightfully espionage-kitsch sounding Code N ("Newsworthy Event").

But in my frequency vigil I have also come across other codes, secret codes, codes that are used to designate extremely dangerous and unusual circumstances often warranting a special response by the civil authorities. This response might include anything from consulting with blind paranormal investigators, to invoking martial law, to contacting the CDC's elite Team Zero to the immediate re-instatement of police officers who have had to recently turn in their badge and their gun (preferably officers who are being penalized for displaying John Woo levels of super-violence). There is even the dreaded Code X ("Shit fucked up beyond any semblance of control") in which case Samuel Jackson is to be notified as soon as humanly possible - if not sooner (this to be done preferably through the use of "The Bad Mother-Fucker Signal" which casts a silhouette of the beloved hollywood icon's face across the clouds at night). Once the popular action star shows up in response to the Code X ,the highest ranking officer at the scene (or failing that then the President of the United States via a live satellite uplink will do) should appraise Mr.Jackson as to "just what the fuck is going on around here with all this bullshit?"

This list ranges from the ludriciously mundane to the epically disastrous. For convenience and easy reading almost all of these codes have been made up:( Index 313 )

Art Break: Brandon Bird

This made my day:)


Signifier & Signified
Brandon Bird, 2006