Canadian Police

[nashscan]

Maybe some Canadian scanfans can answer this one or Detroit residents. Do police in Canada use similar 10-codes like many US departments? I know each province and city may be different, but I was wondering if they patterned after the United States or operated completely different.

 

[Jay911]

10 codes are used by some departments, but there are as many variations as there are departments out there. I have examples from Calgary City Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Calgary Police service has "10-12" which is "Intoxicated"
RCMP uses "10-12" to mean "Stand By"

CPS "10-21" = "Mental Case"
RCMP "10-21" = "Call Me By Phone"

CPS "10-33" = "Suspicious Person"
RCMP "10-33" = "Help Me Quickly"

To further complicate things, CPS have not only 10-1 thru 10-9, but also 10-01 thru 10-09, which are pronounced with the zero (i.e. "ten zero one").

CPS 10-1 = Receiving Poorly
CPS 10-2 = Receiving Well
CPS 10-3 = Stand By
CPS 10-4 = Acknowledged
CPS 10-5 = Location
CPS 10-01 = Injury Motor Vehicle Accident
CPS 10-02 = Property Damage Motor Vehicle Accident
CPS 10-03 = Other Accident
CPS 10-04 = Alarm
CPS 10-05 = Assault
CPS 10-06 = Assist Police Member
CPS 10-07 = (Attempted) Suicide
CPS 10-08 = House Burglary
CPS 10-09 = Shop Breaking

etc.

In summary, like I said, 10 codes are used, but there's hardly a standard.

 

[SCPD]

Don't forget the only ones standard coast to coast.
10-300 Igloo fire
10-301 Theft of dog sled
10-302 Out of beer

But seriously
Most departments do use some form of 10 code. Then there are also ones that use 900 codes or 800 codes. Very weird. When the going gets rough just about all go to saying what they mean without any code at all.

 

[CqDx]

It's not only Canada that has 800, 900 codes. Here in NJ, Newark PD uses code ranging from 100 to 800! The first number represents the level of priority.

Imagine remembering all those codes

 

[SCPD]

It's not only Canada that has 800, 900 codes. Here in NJ, Newark PD uses code ranging from 100 to 800! The first number represents the level of priority.

Imagine remembering all those codes

Trying to remember which code you want while in dire straights could be real fun. Keep your mind off the trouble at hand. I guess the variations are good in a way. Keeps the odds of the bad guys knowing all the codes for all agencies minimal. Keeps the odds of good guys that do bad in outside areas from knowing too. But...Really hard for mutual assistance I'd bet.

 

[hemi]

The Ontario Provincial Police uses 10 codes as do the ambulance and most fire departments. After listening to a scanner for over 20 years i have no prob rembering all the codes, it trying to talk normal to people i have trouble with.It has almost become another language to me 10-4 :wink:

 

[hemi]

The Ontario Provincial Police uses 10 codes as do the ambulance and most fire departments. After listening to a scanner for over 20 years i have no prob rembering all the codes, it trying to talk normal to people i have trouble with.It has almost become another language to me 10-4 :wink:

 

[jellotor]

Don't forget the odd PS that will use a combination of 900 codes and 10 codes. I believe Halton Region has been known to do that.

 

[histo]

A lot of departments in my experience are starting to move away from 10 codes. We find it hard to comunicate with other municipalities in an emergency and have to figure out there 10 codes are different than ours.

 

[jwheatley]

Where I live (Howard County, Indiana), they use not only the 10 codes but they use signals as well.

Here are a few examples:

10-6: Busy
10-8: In Service
10-9: Repeat
10-10: Fight
10-12: On Portable Radio
10-16: Domestic dispute
10-23: Arrived
10-43: Information
10-51: Wrecker
10-52: Ambulance
10-70: Fire
10-76: Enroute

Signal 4: Courthouse
Signal 5: Jail
Signal 8: Meet
Signal 9: Disregard
Signal 40: Wanted
Signal 60: Drugs
Signal 80: Not on File/Not Wanted