N9JIG, Werinshades, and TheRover all have it correct. here's sort of a 'cheat sheet" for ya on CPD radio lingo:
"Desk" - District Desk
"Office" - Watch Commander's Office / District Commander's Office also known as the "WC's Office" or the "DC's Office".
"Personal" - Gotta go to the restroom
"Uniform Adjustment" - fixing the uniform or it's accessories
RAP/Backlog - Too many calls for service and not enough units to answer calls...short on manpower
PDT - "piece of S%&t" it's the computer in the car also klnown as "the box" as in "Ok, Squad, throw it on my box"
RD# - General Offense Case Report Number used for administrative filing purposes and used to also be used for report tracking. CPD started using a system of report numbers based on one letter and six numbers back in the 1970s. Since then, CPD has filed so many reports that the RD#'s are now using a two letter and six number format. CPD started with A-000000 and is now at HT-and six numbers. These report numbers roll over and start all over again at 12AM every January 1st.
Event# - Event numbers were at first used only for certain items that the Department was interested in tracking and was expanded some recent years ago and now everything gets an event# assigned to it. You may hear a unit, for example: 663A may ask for an event# with his RD# request...this event# will be used to find and track this specific report. Event numbers are formatted over the air as five numbers, but actually is written at OEMC as: Month, Day, Year, and then the five numbers you hear on the air.
"Wave Off" - A unit decides they are closer to an incident than the unit assigned, and will tell the dispatcher to tell the originally assigned unit to disregard the call or "take a wave - off" and the originally assigned unit will usually happily return with a happy "thank you" to the unit giving the wave off since they now have one less thing to do.
"Slow-Down" - A dispatcher will tell responding units to a serious call to "take a slow down per the authority of" whatever unit issued the direction for no more cars.
"Total Disregard" - when the slow down doesn't work then a total disregard is issued. Units are now told to forget the call ever existed and go about their business if they weren't already on-scene.
A downer is now a "Man or woman down"
A homeless or mentally ill person is now either a "mental" or a "bum". These terms are interchangeable as the term "mental" has been complained about a lot and so they just will usually call a mental subject a simple "bum" and you'll hear sometimes "Squad, I'm transporting a bum to the psych unit". Some units will just simply call in a "hospital transport" or a "transport for a challenged person".
99 = one man car
10-4 = two or more men in the car
An ex-boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband is now known as "baby momma" or "baby daddy"
On the north side (Districts 19, 23, 24), you'll hear trouble between a GLBT couple described as "lover's quarrel" and some units have more colorful terms that I will not use here.
A drunk woman will sometimes be referred to as "Beer bottle Betty"
During the daytime, you'll hear the school cars going to each school in their district to sign the log and then go back on the street, and sometimes you'll actually hear trouble at a school or they'll catch a few kids playing hooky. You'll hear all of these described as "dealing with delinquents".
A "zone" is a district radio frequency assignment while a "citywide" is used for details, special events, and other serious stuff that impacts the city on a wide scale. For instance, you'll hear "Units in 15 and units on citywide, we're getting a call of a person with a gun, person with a gun at xxxx W. whatever street name"
There are specialized units on those citywide frequencies.
"Walk and Talk" means foot patrol
Anything else you need, just ask.