Law enforcement jargon

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Law enforcement jargon refers to a large body of acronyms, abbreviations, codes and slang used by law enforcement personnel to provide quick concise descriptions of people, places, property and situations, in both spoken and written communication. These vary between countries and to a lesser extent regionally. For the purpose of this article, only English speaking countries are considered.

Contents

[edit] United Kingdom

[edit] Offences

[edit] Initialisms describing situations

  • ASNT - Area Searched No Trace
  • MFH - Missing From Home
  • NAI - Non-Accidental Injury

[edit] Miscellaneous initialisms

[edit] Miscellaneous acronyms

[edit] Miscellaneous abbreviations

[edit] United States

[edit] Numerical and alphanumerical codes

The ten-codes are used only for voice communications, usually radio transmissions and denote commonly used phrases; for example 10-16 means domestic disturbance. Use of ten-codes is becoming somewhat obsolescent within most departments. The trend is toward "clear" (uncoded) radio communication.

The response codes consist of the word "Code" followed by a number; for example "Code 3" means lights and sirens.

Numbers and alphanumeric combinations referring to offences and actions covered by legal codes are often used both as nouns and verbs in both spoken and written communication. Since each state has its own system of law, this usage varies widely by state. For example in California, if a suspect is 849B'd, it means they are released from custody after being arrested (instead of being booked into county jail) and refers to section 849(b) of the California Penal Code.

[edit] Subject description initialisms

Three letter abbreviations are commonly used to describe subjects mentioned in incident reports. The first letter denotes apparent race/ethnicity; the most commonly used letters are: A - Asian, B - Black, H - Hispanic, O - Oriental, W - White. The letters PI are occasionally used to denote Pacific Islander resulting in a four letter abbreviation [1]. The second letter denotes gender: F - Female, M - Male. The final letter denotes whether the subject is legally an adult: A - Adult, J - Juvenile. Thus the initialism WFJ (or wfj) appearing after a subjects name in a police log would denote a white female juvenile.

[edit] Code violations

[edit] Initialisms describing situations

  • GOA - Gone On Arrival
  • QOA - Quiet On Arrival
  • DOA - Dead On Arrival
  • UTL - Unable To Locate

[edit] Miscellaneous initialisms

[edit] Miscellaneous acronyms

[edit] Miscellaneous abbreviations

  • BKD - Booked (into county jail)
  • BLK - Street block
  • BTWN - Between
  • DESC - Description
  • JUV - Juvenile
  • MOD - Model (of vehicle, for example)
  • PROP - Property
  • REG - Vehicle registration
  • RELD/RLSD - Released
  • RPTS - Reports (verb)
  • SER - Serial number
  • SUSP - Suspect
  • TKN - Taken
  • UNK - Unknown
  • VEH - Vehicle
  • VIC - Victim
  • WARR - Warrant

[edit] Popular culture

Law enforcement jargon is heavily used in police procedurals and similar shows. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation about forensic scientists uses many acronyms such as AFIS and CODIS.

The numeric code 187 from the California Penal Code section dealing with murder has been featured in numerous gangsta rap songs and as the title of the movie One Eight Seven.

[edit] External links

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