RCMP Unit Numbers

[willwest43]

Hello all,

I own an ex-RCMP 2007 Crown Victoria PI. I noticed on the front passenger side fender, I saw '16B6' in the faded paint. It's quite clear in certain light and I can't see anything else but that. No where else apart from the other fender does it have any lettering (that I have found at least). Everything else the ghost of the RCMP decals, or just missing paint (good ol' Peelformance White). Would anyone maybe know what 16B6 would mean? Radio callsign or something? I know that is where the location, and unit number goes, but never seen one like this before. I am used to two letters and 4 digits.

There is nothing on the registration as I bought from a private seller coming up on 4 years now. I am just trying to find the history of my car. I did a Carfax dive, but it didn't turn up anything but service reports from the RCMP and that it was indeed stationed in Vernon BC as claimed by the previous owner. Just a waste of 130 dollars

I have spoken to the RCMP, but they say 16B6 has no relevance to where it was stationed. But may be used as a radio callsign, but I would just love to find a bit more history on my car, and even find a photo of her in service.

I have received varied answers so far. I just want to know a bit more history of my car and even try and find a photo of her still in service.

Cheers.

 

[RMason]

From 2018:

RCMP K Div (Alberta) Car Designators

On an incident today I saw a unit marked with an unusual (to me) designator. The vehicle was a marked F150 with the ID 2A22V on the side. I've heard on the radio the member/unit being called 2A22 all the time, no Victor suffix. Is there some kind of importance to this letter and if so, (a) what...

forums.radioreference.com

See also in the wiki:

RCMP K Division (AB) - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

But it seems that BC has their own system for designators.

 

[kayn1n32008]

I own an ex-RCMP 2007 Crown Victoria PI. I noticed on the front passenger side fender, I saw '16B6' in the faded paint... Would anyone maybe know what 16B6 would mean? Radio callsign or something?

That would have been that PV call sign.

I am used to two letters and 4 digits.

That's something I've noticed in Alberta as well. 2 letters, then some numbers.

I have received varied answers so far. I just want to know a bit more history of my car and even try and find a photo of her still in service.

Cheers.

Good luck looking for photos of it in service.

xAx, xAxx, xBx and xBxx were common call signs to hear in the Okanagan. I don't recognize that specific call sign, but it's been better than 25 years since I lived there.

 

[harryshute]

Despite what the RCMP says 16B6 does identify a Vernon Municipal Car. Or at least under the old numbering system. Being car 6 indicates that the detachment would have at least that number of Municipal Cars.

15 was Summerland and 17 was North Okanagan HP in Enderby.

I bought a brand new 2003 Crown Victoria Interceptor. I still have it at 122,000 Km. It will last forever

 

[BC_Scan]

But it seems that BC has their own system for designators.

I asked member other day of a PF unit and he said it stood for Port Mann Freeway patrol, many of the muni's seem to be using initials of the community SU= Surrey ,NV= North Vancouver, etc working in Lytton recently ( if I recall I saw LY parked beside me @ AW) we used to use 1 2 3 etc probably changed 10+yrs ago (when they moved from cars to Ford Interceptor Explorer)

 

[AceChromeCheetah]

From 2018:

RCMP K Div (Alberta) Car Designators

On an incident today I saw a unit marked with an unusual (to me) designator. The vehicle was a marked F150 with the ID 2A22V on the side. I've heard on the radio the member/unit being called 2A22 all the time, no Victor suffix. Is there some kind of importance to this letter and if so, (a) what...

forums.radioreference.com

See also in the wiki:

RCMP K Division (AB) - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

But it seems that BC has their own system for designators.

Truth be told, I want to know what BC's system is. I'm currently working on a story (Horror) that takes place in BC that would involve the RCMP. I am very pedantic when it comes to details unfortunately, lmao. So if anybody can tell me BC RCMP's system for designators, I'd greatly appreciate it. For context, this story takes place in the late 90s.

 

[Mypocketshurt]

Truth be told, I want to know what BC's system is. I'm currently working on a story (Horror) that takes place in BC that would involve the RCMP. I am very pedantic when it comes to details unfortunately, lmao. So if anybody can tell me BC RCMP's system for designators, I'd greatly appreciate it. For context, this story takes place in the late 90s.

In the mid to late 2000’s the RCMP in BC switched to PRIME-BC (Police Records Information Management Environment) .That’s when they switched the numbering on their cars from number letter number to 2 letters and four number format. In the old system, the first number was assigned to the detachment. The letter told you the role of the officer inside.

A = is admin role ie: Watch Commander or other Supervisors of the shift.
B = all the General Duty Officers.
C = Traffic Duty Officers.
D = Investigators (detectives)
E = Dog Handlers and then the number told you which unit of that section that car is.

Here in Chilliwack, the detachment number is 20, so the 3rd Chilliwack Traffic Unit would be 20C3. The 3rd General Duty vehicle would be 20B3. The D and E vehicles would mostly be unmarked units and rarely would be a marked vehicle so you wouldn’t see those call signs on vehicles.

When they switched to the PRIME-BC system they changed the unit numbers to two letters identifying the detachment Chilliwack was UF for Upper Fraser Valley and four numbers to identify each unit so in Chilliwack it would look like this UF2010.
With the PRIME_BC system the radio call signs changed from the unit number on the car to a unique to that officer's call sign. Their call signs changed to a number letter number format.

I can’t remember exactly what the first number is. I just know six was an administration role similar to A in the old format. Most of the time they would just say the letter and then the number like a traffic unit would be Tango36 and an officer from A watch doing General Duty would be Alpha36.
The letter indicated which watch they worked on each watch is assigned a letter. A B C D and traffic units were T. The second set of numbers would be unique to that officer. General Duty Officers would be in the lower numbers and the Supervisors would be 50 and up.

 

[harryshute]

In the mid to late 2000’s the RCMP in BC switched to PRIME-BC (Police Records Information Management Environment) .That’s when they switched the numbering on their cars from number letter number to 2 letters and four number format. In the old system, the first number was assigned to the detachment. The letter told you the role of the officer inside.

A = is admin role ie: Watch Commander or other Supervisors of the shift.
B = all the General Duty Officers.
C = Traffic Duty Officers.
D = Investigators (detectives)
E = Dog Handlers and then the number told you which unit of that section that car is.

Here in Chilliwack, the detachment number is 20, so the 3rd Chilliwack Traffic Unit would be 20C3. The 3rd General Duty vehicle would be 20B3. The D and E vehicles would mostly be unmarked units and rarely would be a marked vehicle so you wouldn’t see those call signs on vehicles.

When they switched to the PRIME-BC system they changed the unit numbers to two letters identifying the detachment Chilliwack was UF for Upper Fraser Valley and four numbers to identify each unit so in Chilliwack it would look like this UF2010.
With the PRIME_BC system the radio call signs changed from the unit number on the car to a unique to that officer's call sign. Their call signs changed to a number letter number format.

I can’t remember exactly what the first number is. I just know six was an administration role similar to A in the old format. Most of the time they would just say the letter and then the number like a traffic unit would be Tango36 and an officer from A watch doing General Duty would be Alpha36.
The letter indicated which watch they worked on each watch is assigned a letter. A B C D and traffic units were T. The second set of numbers would be unique to that officer. General Duty Officers would be in the lower numbers and the Supervisors would be 50 and up.

I should have got off my butt and answered this one earlier. But Mypocketshurt has done a great job with his answer. From 1974 to 2004 I spent a great deal of time in BC logging RCMP identifiers.

A were Rural units
B were Municipal units
C were Highway Patrol
D and E as as in the previous post
F were administration and weren't heard that often.

In the Lower Mainland the big Municipal departments were all Bravo. Even their traffic units used Bravo.

You noticed the Alpha units more in Rural areas. Say for Kelowna Rural areas surrounding the municipality were Alpha while the City units were Bravo.

For the movie in the 90's let me know what areas you are interested in. I have most of the detachment call signs logged in the Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland, Lower Interior, Upper Interior, Okanagan and East and West Kootenays logged.

 

[Marv_Ellis]

This post brought back a few memories. I can confirm mypocketshurt and harryshute’s info. I can add that marine units used “Golf”; 48G1 was the police vessel Inkster.

I was a Telecomms operator at E Division Ops Comm Centre from 1994-97. The OCC identified as “43 Vancouver” back in the day, as the radio callsign was XJA43. We dispatched for the Highway Patrol and several small detachments in the Lower Mainland District. When 43 was amalgamated with E-Comm in 1999, we had a reunion of operators. I found this commemorative pin in my desk drawer the other day. Good times!

 

[west5alpha]

That would be the unit call sign
16 Bravo 6

 

[harryshute]

That would be the unit call sign
16 Bravo 6

On Vancouver Island it would be Port Hardy bit I don't think they would have 6 Municipal Car if any.
Lower Mainland would be Agassiz but don't think they would number that high.
Lower Interior would be Merritt.
Okanagan would be Vernon a good possibility,
East and West Kootenays would be Kimberly. Again don't expect that many B cars.

This post brought back a few memories. I can confirm mypocketshurt and harryshute’s info. I can add that marine units used “Golf”; 48G1 was the police vessel Inkster.

I was a Telecomms operator at E Division Ops Comm Centre from 1994-97. The OCC identified as “43 Vancouver” back in the day, as the radio callsign was XJA43. We dispatched for the Highway Patrol and several small detachments in the Lower Mainland District. When 43 was amalgamated with E-Comm in 1999, we had a reunion of operators. I found this commemorative pin in my desk drawer the other day. Good times!

View attachment 190494

Nice Pin.
In Alberta the Golf units were the Freeway Patrol between Edmonton and Calgary. I forgot in B.C they were the Marine unit.

In the Okanagan I could never figure out why the detachment numbers jumped from 23 Falkland to 42 Sicamous.

 

[OliveDrabWolf]

This post brought back a few memories. I can confirm mypocketshurt and harryshute’s info. I can add that marine units used “Golf”; 48G1 was the police vessel Inkster.

I was a Telecomms operator at E Division Ops Comm Centre from 1994-97. The OCC identified as “43 Vancouver” back in the day, as the radio callsign was XJA43. We dispatched for the Highway Patrol and several small detachments in the Lower Mainland District. When 43 was amalgamated with E-Comm in 1999, we had a reunion of operators. I found this commemorative pin in my desk drawer the other day. Good times!

View attachment 190494

On the scanner in the 90s you used to hear: "Four-three...Five-Charlie-Two-Six. Two-Five and Two-Six on Rutherford, common spelling, Joseph Edward...BC Reg Papa Xray Tango Two Three Five..."

Surrey Detachment here in BC used to do a lot of queries OTA and in the clear then. I remember the "2-5" and "2-6" being wants & warrants and such (10-25, 10-26) but maybe I'm misremembering because the list of RCMP 10-codes for "K" Div out there shows different meanings...unless we did something different out her in E Div. Unit numbers were the same as discussed up the thread aways -- "5" in this case was the Region ID for Surrey, then the usual A, B, C etc.

Anyway, they always called "4-3..." when performing the query, now I know why.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Two-Five and Two-Six on Rutherford, common spelling, Joseph Edward...BC Reg Papa Xray Tango Two Three Five..."

That would be 28/29/CNI. the plate would have been given when the stop was initiated, before the member made contact with the driver.

I spent many many days and nights listening to BC RCMP. For a long time the OCC 'call sign' was the name of the city it was in, then when they consolidated OCC's it simply became 'control' where I grew up.

 

[Marv_Ellis]

That would be 28/29/CNI. the plate would have been given when the stop was initiated, before the member made contact with the driver.

I spent many many days and nights listening to BC RCMP. For a long time the OCC 'call sign' was the name of the city it was in, then when they consolidated OCC's it simply became 'control' where I grew up.

It’s been 30 years, but if I remember correctly, 28/29 was on a licence plate (10-28 registered owner, 10-29 want associated with a vehicle?). 10-27 was drivers licence info. CNI is Criminal Name Index check which would return an FPS number (Fingerprint Series). FPS# would indicate a criminal record.

Rooting around in some old files, I found this list of BC designators from early or mid-90s. Printed on a dot-matrix printer, lol.

Reviewing the list I now recollect that 15 Abbotsford was a small detachment on it’s own. It was until later in the 1990’s that the Township of Abbotsford merged with the larger District of Matsqui to create the City of Abbotsford which has it’s own municipal police service.

I have been in and out of the monitoring hobby for over 40 years. I was fortunate to work on the dispatch side of the radio for a few years in the mid-90s.

There were actually many BC unit designators, ie
45 Vancouver Drug Section Federal Policing (which was using DVP encryption back then).
48 General Investigation Section (GIS) Provincial Policing

I’ll see if I can find more, for historical interest.

BC 10 codes courtesy of ERC Publications frequency directory 1997