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AUGUST 23, 2005 -- Radio codes such as 10-4 are a second language in public safety circles, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency says there's no room for misunderstanding in a national emergency. So it's ordering police and other departments to phase out their code-speak and start talking in plain English by next September or risk losing millions of dollars in emergency preparedness money.
Sgt. J.O. Holmes with the North Carolina Highway Patrol says even if all officers start using the same words those words may be interpreted differently.
But radio codes can be confusing as well. For example, when the highway patrol hears 10-82 it means there's a stranded motorist who needs assistance, but when Brunswick County sheriff's deputies hear the same code, it means domestic disturbance.
Many fire departments went to plain English years ago.
"The clearer, the more precise we can make those messages, that communication, the more safe our responders will be," says Chief Jim Schwartz of the Arlington, Virginia fire department.
Some say changing the language public safety officers speak is easier said than done.
Reported by Sarah Warlick
