The creation of 10-codes came about due to necessity. Police departments needed to find a way to keep the channel as free from traffic and cross-talk as possible.

RICHMOND, Virginia - Anyone who ever played cops-and-robbers as a kid, listened to a police scanner or watched TV shows such as "Dragnet" or "Adam-12" knows that "10-4" and other ...

If you’ve ever seen an American police show on TV or in the movies, you’ve seen a dispatcher or an officer on patrol communicate using so-called “ten-codes.” These are shorthand codes that ...

The 10-code system dates to the 1920s when police radios had only one channel and officers needed to relay information succinctly. But over time, departments developed their own 10-codes.

If federal Homeland Security officials have their way, the next time a police officer arrives on the scene, he’ll simply radio back “I understand” rather than saying “10-4.” ...

The Maryland State Police abandoned the terse “ten code” system of radio communication. That was the system that embodied such code terms as the celebrated 10-4 — message understood.

After years of confirming information with a 10-4, police, firefighters and paramedics are ready to call their code language a 10-42, ending its duty. Responding to a signal 14 may not mean much ...

Virginia 10 - Codes, Over and Out Coded language, like 10-4 and 10-20, used by the police and other emergency responders often means different things in different jurisdictions. You can imagine ...

They also ran into similar radio congestion and adopted the 10-code used by police departments, but with some colorful additions, like: Bear meant policeman. Super skate was code for "sports car." ...