This is a guide and a reference for turning NYPD jargon into useful tweets for those on the ground. That means that this document will have two main goals: helping you figure out what the cops are talking about, and helping you reframe that information in a way that’s more comprehensible for people who aren’t as familiar with police lingo or organization. As part of both goals, there will be a focus on helping you figure out what information is and isn’t useful for protestors.
Some things to keep in mind as you learn to (and eventually) transcribe are that we’re here to help people, and that it’s always ok to ask for help yourself. There’s no shame in asking to get a second pair of ears on a sound bite, especially if it’s going to help us get more accurate information out to the people on the ground.
Resources
It can be helpful to have a couple of tabs open so you can quickly search them while listening to the radio. A searchable map, a list of local thoroughfares, and a list of local cop jargon are all incredibly useful. Cops also often refer to precinct numbers so it could be useful to have a map with those labeled on it too. Here are some NYC-specific links:
There’s a lot of shorthand that’s used on radio that can make it difficult to tell what’s going on at first. It’ll be confusing, but you’ll get the hang of it. There are some lists online that you can find by searching “nypd radio codes” or “nypd 10 codes”. Note that different police departments may assign different meanings to the same codes, so make sure you’re using a list that aligns with your region (or an nypd specific one if you’re scanning new york).
You don’t have to memorize all of them! It’s good to be familiar with the most common ones, and have a reference sheet open for the ones you don’t recognize.
Most relevant codes:
10-4: I heard you / Ok
10-5: Say that again?
Central: Dispatch (the cop admin moderating the radio)
Unit: A cop
Aviation: usually helicopters, sometimes NYPD drones (modified quadcopters)
Mobile Field Force: Riot cops
SRG: Strategic Response Group, More militarized riot cops
Orderly at this time: Cops going to keep monitoring group without engaging
Disorderly: Group was just declared an escalation target
P-van/P-wagon: Prison van (for transporting people they’ve arrested)
Under/ # under: arrested/ # arrested
Airmail: any thrown object (literally anything from water bottles to bricks)
LRAD (“El-Rad”): Sonic weapon, destroys your eardrums, forces groups to disperse
Other things you’ll probably hear:
Open Carrier: Cop with their radio mic on, who doesn’t realize it
EDP: “Emotionally Disturbed Person” (cop code for anyone acting “off”)
Transport: Cops hailing a ride. Could also be prisoner transport especially if heard in conjunction with “# under”.
Bus: Transportation, usually ambulance
M.O.S.: Member of service (usually cop, could mean other first responder)
RMP: Patrol vehicle (sedan, van, whatever)
The GAP: Grand Army Plaza (Brooklyn)
No Unauthorized: Cop said something they shouldn’t have, central has to say this
Usually cops start by identifying themselves with a position and/or unit number
ex. DI Knickers (Detective Inspector Knickers), 29 C.O. (Commanding Officer of the 29th precinct), Aviation 20 (chopper 20), 3 Boy (Unit 3B), 401 (Mobile Field Force 401)
You might hear the locations of command posts pop up, especially during times when there are a lot of protests. The location of the command post will often be referenced by the cop calling in, and then repeated by the command post. Their locations move around a bit based on “need,” but this is where they’ve been:
43rd st (note when they’re referring to the command post they say “fourty third street”, but when they mean the street they’ll say “four-three”)
City Hall
Washington Square Park
A longer list of NYPD cop lingo (alphabetical)
1PP: 1 Police Plaza (NYPD Headquarters)
2 by 2: Static-y, muffled (opposite of loud and clear)
5 by 5: Loud and clear
10-4: I heard you / Ok
10-5: Say that again?
10-13: Cop requesting assistance
10-80: Cancel
10-82: Arrest made (will then give the number arrested)
10-84: Arrived
10-85: Units requested
75 David (Directed patrol): Algorithm tells cops where to roam. Protest-unrelated.
Airmail: any thrown object (literally anything from water bottles to bricks)
Aviation: usually helicopters, sometimes NYPD drones (modified quadcopters)
The Bowtie: The NYPD base at Times Square
Bus: Transportation, usually ambulance
Central: Dispatch (the cop admin moderating the radio)
CO (C.O.): Commanding Officer
CT: Counterterrorism
Disorderly: Group was just declared an escalation target
EDP: “Emotionally Disturbed Person” (cop code for anyone acting “off”)
Frozen zone: Area blocked off to traffic
Hercules: Counterterrorism unit
LRAD (“El-Rad”): Sonic weapon, destroys your eardrums, forces groups to disperse
Mobile Field Force: Riot cops
MOS (M.O.S.): Member of service (usually cop, could mean other first responder)
No Unauthorized: Cop said something they shouldn’t have, central has to say this
Open Carrier: Cop with their radio mic on, who doesn’t realize it
Orderly at this time: Cops going to keep monitoring group without engaging
Parallel: Follow a group by moving parallel to them on an adjacent street
PC: Precinct
P-van/P-wagon: Prison van (for transporting people they’ve arrested)
Raise: To get in touch with (ex. “trying to raise a unit”)
Randalls Island: This is where State police are usually dismissed to (A late-night call to Randalls Island usually means “go home”)
RMP: Patrol vehicle (sedan, van, whatever)
SRG: Strategic Response Group, More militarized riot cops
Transport: Cops hailing a ride
Under/ # under: 3 arrested/ # arrested
Unit: A cop
Communicating what the cops are saying
This section is to guide you in figuring out what information is tweetworthy and what the best way to tweet it is.
Figuring out what to tweet
Not everything you hear on a police scanner will be protest-related, and even things that are protest-related are not always useful for people on the ground. Our general rules of thumb are:
What it’s useful to tweet
Locations, numbers, directions of groups
If you can, check that the location makes sense given the last known location of the group.
Places that police are being dispatched to
if noteworthy, the type of cop they are (ex. riot cop, scooters)
Police tactics (planning to cut a group off in a given place, planning to make arrests, etc)
When there are a lot of small arrests in a given area (just notify that there are many arrests in that area so people can get out)
It’s rare to hear on the radio but super useful for jail support organizers so keep an ear out: location of where they are sending people they have arrested. “120 Schermerhorn” is the bookings in Brooklyn. They may also name a precinct. Even if you don’t understand the info/location, experienced jail support organizers might so just make a note of it.
What it’s not useful to tweet
Things you’re not 100% sure you heard correctly
Protest-unrelated activity (EDPs, the things listed below, etc.)
License plate numbers or descriptions of cars
Every update of a group location (just tweet when the direction changes, or when the group size is updated)
If it’s really busy, locations of small arrests/prisoner wagons (focus on the mass arrests and larger groups)
Early on it’s hard to figure out what is and isn’t “normal” to hear on the scanners. Here’s a list of things that you’ll probably hear pretty frequently.
Lots of clicking and beeping (sometimes rapidly, accompanied by silence.) It doesn’t mean anything, it’s just cops checking that the buttons on their radio aren’t stuck.
Unconfirmed shots fired. You’ll hear this one a lot. NYPD has a system called “Shotspotter” which is essentially a sensor network that will call in any loud gunshot-ish noise (ex. fireworks, a car backfiring) as shots fired, which will then be announced on the scanner.
Confirmed shots fired are pretty frequent as well, and are almost always not related to the protests. As a result we generally don’t tweet these out, especially because we don’t want to cause panic.
Aviation/Helicopters tracking a group. It’s honestly ridiculous how often they pull out the choppers.
Level 1 Mobilizations. This is when a borough task force is called to respond to an area. They’re relatively frequent.
There are other things that might seem urgent or tweet-worthy, such as violent crime, suspects fleeing, burglaries, etc. Keep your focus on protests and protest-related incidents.
Framing the tweet
Make sure to maintain a calm tone in what you tweet out - it doesn’t actually help to yell in all caps or make the situation sound dire - simply describe what is happening. To the inexperienced listener, routine and expected police activity may sound more relevant or urgent than it is. Get a firm grasp on the jargon and implications before you editorialize too much, but do translate anything you understand into plain language for the protestors on the ground.
We need to keep in mind that in listening to cop radio, we’re only getting one side of the story. Everything we’re hearing from the scanners contains a bias that we need to take into consideration.
Avoiding cop language and cop framing should be a goal when writing your tweets:
Language: avoid jargon, codes, and rephrase using layperson-friendly terms.
Perspective: remain critical of what cops are reporting, especially if it’s related to a group’s percieved rowdiness
Examples:
Cop: Mobile Field Force 401, Central we’ve got a group of roughly a hundred in t street(!!!) blocking traffic and stopping cars, northbound on Brooklyn from Tillary, we’re gonna parallel them on Jay.
Tweet: Group of ~100 protestors moving north on Brooklyn Bridge Blvd from Tillary, riot cops following them from Jay st.
Central: SRG to 3-9 and 8 for airmail
Tweet: Riot cops sent to 39th st and 8th ave in response to report of thrown objects- possible police escalation
That being said, sometimes it’s helpful to relay the specifics of what cops are saying.
Notes on how the cops are perceiving the groups can be helpful. For instance, a cop using the word “disorderly” to describe a group is definitely something you want to report, as it could mean the cops are planning to escalate.
Sometimes they’ll outline a specific plan of action, which it’s incredibly helpful to relay. Here are some examples of we’ve heard:
Cops organizing to surround the groups (having some cops parallel, some get ahead, and others get behind them. This is most obvious when a cop is trying to get another group of cops to get ahead of a group.)
In-the-moment arrest rules cops made up:
Cops planning to arrest anyone who’s on the street (but not the sidewalk)
Cops planning to arrest anyone who tries to cross the bridge
Cops preparing to deploy the LRAD (sonic weapon)
In general, it’s good practice to take all cops’ words with a grain of salt. Cops lie.
The numbers they give for crowd estimates vary wildly. We don’t remember the exact numbers but there was a particular group that they estimated to be 200 people, then 500 people, then 3000, then about 150, all in the space of half an hour. If numbers for a group seem inconsistent, it’s possible they are (still double-check yourself if you can though).
We’ve heard the cops dispatch to intersections that don’t exist, and say groups are walking north on streets that only go east-west. It’s always good to double-check yourself and reference a map, but it’s good to know that sometimes the locations you’ll hear don’t make any sense.
Conclusion
It’s normal to feel disheartened at first. It’s hard to hear what they’re saying through all the static, clicking, and humming. You’ll get the hang of it. If you have any questions or need any help, don’t hesitate to reach out. No matter how experienced you are, there’ll always be that one garbled transmission you need a second pair of ears on- there’s no stigma in asking for help.
There’s no denying that this work can be taxing. It’s hard to find anything uplifting in listening to cops talk to each other for hours on end. But every once in a while, you can hear a group of protesters shouting so loud that central can’t make out a word the cop is saying. Remember that we’re doing this for the people on the ground. Tell them what the cops are planning.