The days of “10-4” are done; Monday marked the first day Virginia State Police began the transition to using plain English instead of 10-code to communicate with one another. Lt. Col. H. C. Davis, director of the Virginia State Police Bureau of Administrative and Support Services, explained why the change was made and how the transition is going.
Why did Virginia State Police make the switch from a 10-code system to a plain English system?
With the deployment of troopers to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, we used radio systems of the local police departments. It was found we were unable to communicate using 10-codes because their meanings of most of the codes were very different from ours. We had to use common language to communicate during day-to-day operations.
Secondly, with the expansion of the COMLINC (Commonwealth’s Link to Interoperable Communications) common language will have to be used to communicate among different agencies in the Commonwealth of Virginia and bordering agencies.
How have officers reacted to the change? Is their training to help them transition?
It has gone reasonably smoothly. It is expected that within the next six months to one year, we should fully transition over to common language. As to training, we have disseminated the information through our Departmental Information Bulletin, and included training in sworn in-service schools, dispatcher training and in-service, etc. New recruits are also trained.
Does the switch help State Police communicate with the local police, or police in the District and Maryland?
It will enhance communications in that there should be no mistaking the meaning of what is being relayed. I have heard of one occasion where a Virginia police officer was dispatched to a call that he believed was “officer needs assistance.” It turns out that the 10-code in the State of Maryland meant a traffic crash, which would be a very different approach to the response.
Is there a move away from using 10-code systems regionally? Do federal law enforcement agencies use plain English?
There are several agencies within Virginia that are making the switch within the next several months. There has been information that in the future, some federalgrant monies may be hinged on whether an agency has converted to the common language protocol, which would be an added incentive.
