Sownman said:
Last night I was monitoring LAPD and heard an officer say KMA. It was used as a sign off where you would normally expect to here "roger" or "clear" he just said KMA. Can anyone clear up just what KMA means and or what the deal with the license frames is ?
LAPD's callsign for all the mobile frequencies used to be KMA367, until 1982. To more or less comply with FCC frequency-identification requirements at the time, LAPD long ago instituted the procedure that officers were to broadcast "KMA367" at the end of lengthy messages, such as crime broadcasts and after running suspects. It also served to let the dispatcher, and other officers, know that he/she was finished broadcasting, kind of like "over" or "over and out."
A couple things happened along the way though. They apparently got tired of saying all those numbers :roll: and it got abbreviated to a simple KMA. Nobody has ever complained, least of all the FCC, so the habit stuck. With the move to UHF in 1982, the main callsign became KJC625, but the officers, tradition-bound, have mostly stuck with "KMA." You'll sometimes hear a "KJC," but not very often.
The "Kiss My A**" meaning has already been mentioned, and the license plate frame business has been pretty well covered, too. As was mentioned, some years ago there was an opposite effect supposedly attached to the frames, and word went around that as part of their initiation some gang aspirants were supposedly being required to shoot or kill someone with a KMA367 frame, apparently the thought being that only cops would have them on their cars. LAPD even put the word out, suggesting that, just in case it was true, everyone might consider removing the frames from their cars. I don't think there were ever any cases documented. I don't think a KMA367 (or KA4993, KMA628, or whatever) will do a whole lot to get someone out of or into any trouble they're not otherwise headed toward.
One other very unofficial and unapproved LAPD use of it goes back to the "Over and out" meaning. Once in a while someone will use "KMA" to indicate a person is dead, in the sense that they're "over and out." I don't remember ever hearing it over the radio, though it's probably slipped though. I've only heard it once in a great while around a station, in a gallows humor kind of vein.
