Douglas County 911 dispatch operators Angela Allen, center, and Kristine Chapman-Keezer respond to a call at the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center. They and other dispatchers use 10 codes to communicate with law enforcement officers, although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security prefers the use of normal language.

It’s a Friday night in Lawrence and police are on their way to 14th and Ohio streets to break up a 10-95 involving several 10-46 subjects.

On the west side of town other officers are 10-23 at a convenience store where a 10-92 just occurred. Meanwhile, out on Kansas Highway 10, Douglas County Sheriff’s officers and the Kansas Highway Patrol are investigating a 10-48.

If all that isn’t enough, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical is responding to a 10-85 at an apartment complex.

In other words – in the first case, officers were responding to a fight involving drunken subjects. At the convenience store, officers were on the scene after an armed robbery. On K-10, it was a injury accident. And Fire & Medical was responding to a fire.

The above incidents are hypothetical but can and have happened on any given night. And the use of 10 codes is something the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would like to see law enforcement agencies nationwide change.

The message: Just speak regular English.

“Originally it was ‘You have to do away with (10 codes) or you are not going to be eligible for federal grants,'” said Jim Denney, director of the Douglas County Emergency Communications Center. “Then there was a big hue and cry and they (Homeland Security) changed the ruling.”

Now Homeland Security leaders say law enforcement and emergency services can use their local codes on a daily basis. But if there is a major incident requiring multiple agencies’ assistance under the federal National Incident Management System, the 10 codes have to be dropped.

Police agencies have been using the 10 codes for decades, since officers started using radios in their patrol cars. The purpose of the codes was to provide a verbal shorthand to describe incidents without using much air time. That was in the days when only one radio channel was used. But the meanings of those codes may differ from one jurisdiction to the next.

Virginia State Police stopped using the 10 codes this month. Some other agencies in that state also dropped the codes. In Douglas County and the rest of Kansas, however, there is no such movement.

Some Kansas agencies may have different meanings for some 10 codes, but there are others that are standard, said Ed Pavey, director of the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center near Hutchinson.

“Usually we get quite a bit of input from police chiefs and sheriffs about our curriculum, and that’s not an area I’ve heard much discussion about,” Pavey said. “We still teach the 10 codes as a common language.”

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and local police departments use the same 10 codes.

“Every cop around here knows that a 10-92 means you’ve had someone with a weapon rob someone else in a face-to-face confrontation,” Denney said.

Local agencies also use a mixture of codes and English to describe calls and incidents. Lawrence Police and sheriff’s officers have gone through training on handling National Incident Management System incidents.

“A lot of times you will hear officers speaking in plain English and not using 10 codes,” Lawrence Police Sgt. Dan Ward said. “If it’s a situation where we’re working with outside agencies or working with Fire and Medical, it’s pretty much natural to roll over and use straight communications.”

The Kansas Highway Patrol uses 10 codes, so troopers in some counties may have to learn certain codes that are specific to communities where they patrol, Lt. John Eichkorn said. The Kansas Highway Patrol is monitoring what is happening nationwide with code usage, he added.

“It’s like anything; when you’re talking to a police officer on the radio it just becomes second nature,” Eichkorn said of 10 code usage. “What you find out a lot of times is that you end up using them off the radio, too.”

Although large police agencies have more than one radio channel these days, there is still a need for brevity on the air, Denney said.

“We have 32 channels and they are all busy,” he said.

Crack the code

Here are some of the 10 codes used in Douglas County. Many of them also are used by other counties.

10-4: OK, or understood.

10-6: Officer busy.

10-15: Arrest made or prisoner in custody.

10-23: Arrived at the scene.

10-28: Check vehicle registration.

10-29: Check for warrant.

10-32: Pursuit.

10-46: Suspect intoxicated.

10-48: Injury accident.

10-85: Fire.

10-92: Armed robbery.

10-95: Fight.