Police radio code

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The Hundred Code is a three-digit police code system.{{Citation |title=SQLSTATE Return Codes |date=2010 |work=SQL Clearly Explained |pages=421–431 |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-375697-8.50021-2 |access-date=2025-04-29 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-12-375697-8}} This code is usually pronounced digit-by-digit, using a radio alphabet for any letters, as 505 "five zero five" or 207A "two zero seven Alpha". The following codes are used in California. They are from the California Penal Code, except where noted below.{{cite web |last1=Dansker |first1=Zack |title=Police Radio Codes |url=https://web.stanford.edu/~reneeb/bill/n.radio.code.html |website=stanford.edu |access-date=25 March 2022}}{{Better ref needed|date=February 2025}}

In the 1970s, the television show Adam-12 was considered so authentic in its portrayal of Los Angeles PD officers and their procedures that excerpts from the shows were used as police training films nationwide.{{Cite web |title=How the TV series 'Adam-12' helped the LAPD sell the 'good cop' image |url=https://www.kpcc.org/show/the-frame/2016-09-16/how-the-tv-series-adam-12-helped-the-lapd-sell-the-good-cop-image |access-date=November 28, 2023 |website=kpcc.org |language=en |quote=We had a technical advisor working with us every day that we shot the show. Once we left the car, they'd say: You do the approach this way, to this automobile where there's this suspected felon. Interestingly enough, during the whole run of "Adam-12," episodes of the show were being bicycled all over the country to police departments to be used as training videos.}} This led to the widespread use of California Penal Codes as radio codes.{{fact|date=November 2020}}

"500" codes are only radio codes that substitute for other code sections. For example, a "503" is not Penal Code section 503 (embezzlement). All of the "500" codes, generally, involve vehicles and are thus grouped together (except 594, which is an actual Penal Code section). Additionally, "390" and variants are also radio codes only (CPC 647(f) is the legally enforced section "public intoxication").{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

In California, some radio codes in the 400–599 range that refer to vehicle violations are left over from the California Vehicle Code (CVC) which was revised in 1971. Some agencies, such as the California Highway Patrol (CHP) use the current vehicle code numbers while municipal and county police agencies, especially the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) still use the 500 series.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

• Emergency service response codes
• APCO phonetic alphabet
• ICAO spelling alphabet
• Ten-code

• {{cite web|url=http://www.policecodes.org |website=PoliceCodes.org|title= Police Scanner Codes Site}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.mendosa.com/code.html |title=Radio and Identification codes|website=Mendosa.com}}
• {{cite web|url=https://policecodes.net |title=Police Codes|website=PoliceCodes.net}}

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Category:Law enforcement

Category:Encodings

Category:Brevity codes