Since I referenced the need for this post in the last post, I thought it appropriate I do this one next.

Learning the language…it’s not something widespread across all police officers where I could give you a dictionary and and you could learn the language in 12 easy steps although I’ve typed in more code charts than I want to remember…there are ten codes, 56 codes, suspension codes, etc. Each county, state and city often have different codes but the most prevalent and probably popular set of codes are the ten codes. You would recognize 10-4 easily. But other ten codes tend to creep in around here. Scott uses them so much at work I think he could speak entirely in ten codes but most of the time he inserts them into random places and then says things like, You don’t know about 10-42, do you? in a proud and know-it-all way. Of course I want to say something like, You don’t know about W3C CSS, do you?

But I digress.

Ten Codes

Some common ten codes I hear often in conversation:

10-4 – ok, permission granted

Me: We’re supposed to go out to eat with D&D this weekend.
Scott: 10-4

10-21- Telephone ______ – meaning call someone

Scott: Can you give him a 10-21?

10-68 Mental Subject

Scott: I think that guy is 10-68.

10-67 subject in arrest/in custody

Scott: Hello?
Me: Hey, what are you doing?
Scott: I’ve got a 10-67, I’ll call you back.

10-0 in a chase

Scott: I was hoping we’d go 10-0.

10-8 In Service – as in I’m done with a wreck, I’m now 10-8

This is the funniest of all of them. It doesn’t get used around our house very much but the guys at work use it to denote a woman that looks good.

Scott (with raised eyebrows): She’s 10-8!

Considering that is translated to She’s in service, I’m not sure if it’s really a compliment altogether.

OK, enough 10 codes.

Titles

Other things I’ve learned are titles. I won’t bore you with the details, but I’ve had to learn the hierarchy of title likes trooper first class, lance corporal, corporal, first sergeant, etc.

I’ve also gotten familiar with solicitors, judges, witnesses, attorneys, etc although I knew what they were of course, I hear about it a lot.

Drunks

One other word that is used that I feel must be cleared up is drunk. And I don’t mean the state of being drunk. I mean a person being referred to as a drunk, as in the conversation I posted in my first Super Trooper post:

Scott: Hello
Me: Hey, what are you doing?
Scott: On the way to jail.
Me: You got a drunk (see a later post about language used)?
Scott: Yeah
Me: Congratulations. Call me back later.

A lot of the troopers find niches of things they are good at. Some are good at catching speeders, some are good at catching people with no seatbelts..Scott is good at finding and arresting drivers for DUI (actually, he’s good at all of it). In fact, I haven’t mentioned it yet but Scott had the highest number of DUI arrests last year in his troop which includes 7 counties and the second highest number in all of South Carolina and he only missed it by 3.

So, I hear A LOT of talk about DUIs. But for the purposes of this post, I’ll just say a lot of times instead of saying things like I arrested someone for DUI last night, Scott will just say I got a drunk. Or, I locked up 10 drunks last month. Or, I need to get 2 more drunks this weekend to catch up to so and so. To an outsider I would guess it sounds derogatory and while he obviously doesn’t condone drinking and driving, it’s not really meant that way.

And I suppose for now, I’m 10-42.

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