One13Truck:
When my Township PD went to an APCO25 trunk system, they decided to share the system with a couple other PD's, FD's, etc.
They shifted to plain language for most things, largely to avoid confusing the other folks.
Nobody told them that the system normally would keep 'em segregated, and only when "mutual aid" was involved would it matter.
The result is a mix of plain language and codes. Makes me a little nuts, but they're handling it.
(I'm a semi-retired rent-a-cop, among other things. I'm so old that I hardly know anybody on the PD anymore, or the City PD adjacent. Everybody's retired, dead, or brain damaged
....)
Many years ago, the wife got involved with a Neighborhood Watch group that ran a "calling tree" to pass "bulletins" around the Township when something of interest occurred. The wife was working outside the house, and I wasn't, so guess who got the calls.... One afternoon the PD's "contact" guy (another retiree - schoolteacher or some such) called me, and started to rattle off the bulletin, using "Code" for about everything. About 2/3 of the way through, he caught himself, and asked if I needed a translation. "Bert, I'm a few years younger than you, but I bet I learned those codes a decade before you ever saw one." Oops....
One thing for the gang here - even if you know the codes & such, if you're calling in a 911 or some such, unless the call taker knows you, or knows you're with (or associated with) some PD or FD, don't use the codes. Confuses the heck out of them.... Been there....
I had to report a "cafe coronary" once. I knew I shouldn't have said that as soon as I said it. The Dispatcher said "huh?". I had to repeat: "An 92 year old woman choked on a piece of steak.".... Mom was conscious and breathing by then, but my brain shifted into Police Mode
.... Wouldn't have mattered too much, but the gal on the other end had no idea what a "cafe coronary" was. Seems like when Heimlich published his method, everybody forgot the term - it just stopped happening as staff learned how to do it. In this case, my wife and another patron at the restaurant, while I was calling it in. My wife works at a nursing home - you bet she knows how to do it.
Way back when, people would go out to dinner and die. It'd often appear to be a heart attack, but it wasn't, and wasn't necessarily "caught". The name went away....
The lights, btw only bother me a tad when I've got the radio in the car in the evenings. I have to buy something "permanent" for the car. Both cars have hi-band radios with scanning capabilities, but nothing that helps with 800mhz trunking.... Hauling the portable around is a PITA....
Regards,