Police Frequencies, 10-Codes and Unit Numbers

AWH: St. Louis County Police Frequencies, 10-Codes and Unit Numbers

Standard Police Phonetics
This system of communication is used to make the spelling of names and reading of license plates less confusing. Over the radio some letters sound very much alike, such as "D," "B" and "E." In the event of a poor or noisy transmission, the dispatcher might misunderstand one of the letters the officer is saying. To avoid this, the phonetic alphabet was devised and is used to spell out names, license plates or VIN numbers that might be easily confused with a similar-sounding words or letters. A license plate reading "ABC-123" would be broadcast as follows: "Adam, Boy, Charles, One, Two, Three." Another example, the name 'TONY' can be spelled t-o-n-y, t-o-n-i, or t-o-n-e-y, to assure that the message recipient understands the correct spelling it would be broadcast as "Tom, Ocean, Nora, Young." All departments use some form of this system. You might even hear some officers use "niner" for "nine" so it will not be confused with the number "five." Almost all departments across the country use this phonetic alphabet for voice communications.

A Adam	H Henry	O Ocean	V Victor
B Boy	I Ida	P Paul	W William
C Charles	J John	Q Queen	X X-ray
D David	K King	R Robert	Y Young
E Edward	L Lincoln	S Sam	Z Zebra
F Frank	M Mary	T Tom
G George	N Nora	U Union