Law enforcement jargon refers to a large body of acronyms, abbreviations, codes and slang used by law enforcement personnel to provide quick concise descriptions of people, places, property and situations, in both spoken and written communication. These vary between countries and to a lesser extent regionally. For the purpose of this article, only English speaking countries are considered. Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for. ... It has been suggested that Apocopation be merged into this article or section. ... In communications, a code is a rule for converting a piece of information (for example, a letter, word, or phrase) into another form or representation, not necessarily of the same type. ... Slang is the non-standard or non-dialectal use of words in a language of a particular social group, and sometimes the creation of new words or importation of words from another language. ... For the band, see The Police. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

United Kingdom

Offences

• ABH - Actual Bodily Harm
• GBH - Grievous Bodily Harm
• TDA - Taken and Driven Away
• TWOC - Taken Without Owner's Consent

It has been suggested that Assault causing bodily harm be merged into this article or section. ... Grievous bodily harm or GBH is a type of assault resulting in, for example, broken bones or cuts to the skin. ... TWOC is an acronym standing for Taken Without Owners Consent. ... TWOC is an acronym standing for Taken Without Owners Consent. ...

Initialisms describing situations

• ASNT - Area Searched No Trace
• MFH - Missing From Home
• NAI - Non-Accidental Injury

Miscellaneous initialisms

• NFA - No Further Action
• VSS - Victim Support Scheme

Victim Support Victim Support is a charity in the United Kingdom which aims to help victims and witnesses of crime by raising awareness of their needs and by delivering dedicated services to them. ...

Miscellaneous acronyms

• HOLMES - Home Office Large and Major Enquiry System; a computer system for major incidents

In the United Kingdom, HOLMES2, the successor to HOLMES (Home Office Large Major Enquiry System), is an IT system used by the Police to assist with the investigation of serious crimes including murder, fraud and disasters. ...

Miscellaneous abbreviations

• MISPER - Missing person
• WOFF - Write off; a vehicle or other property deemed a total loss for insurance purposes

Missing statue in a park A missing person is someone who has disappeared for a long period of time, commonly with no known reason. ... In accounting, writing off is the expensing of a balance sheet asset that has no future benefits. ...

United States

Numerical and alphanumerical codes

The ten-codes are used only for voice communications, usually radio transmissions and denote commonly used phrases; for example 10-16 means domestic disturbance. Ten-codes, properly known as ten signals, are code words used to represent common phrases in voice communication, particularly in radio transmissions. ... In communications, transmission is the act of transmitting electrical messages (and the associated phenonomena of radiant energy that pass through media). ...

Numbers and alphanumeric combinations referring to offences and actions covered by legal codes are often used both as nouns and verbs in both spoken and written communication. Since each state has its own system of law, this usage varies widely by state. For example in California, if a suspect is 849B'd, it means they are released from custody after being arrested (instead of being booked into county jail) and refers to section 849(b) of the California Penal Code. A number is an abstract entity that represents a count or measurement. ... Generally speaking, the term alphanumeric refers to anything that consists of only letters and numbers. ... In law, an offense (or offence) is a violation of the penal law. ... A legal code is a moral code enforced by the law of a state. ... A noun, or noun substantive, is a part of speech (a word or phrase) which can co-occur with (in)definite articles and attributive adjectives, and function as the head of a noun phrase. ... A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action (bring, read), occurrence (decompose, glitter), or a state of being (exist, stand). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq. ... The Chicago Police Department arrests a man A protester is arrested during a demonstration. ... Look up booking in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A county jail is a place of detention for people awaiting trial, or for those who have been convicted of a misdemeanor and are serving a sentence of less than one year. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Criminal Code. ...

Subject description initialisms

Three letter abbreviations are commonly used to describe subjects mentioned in incident reports. The first letter denotes apparent race/ethnicity; the most commonly used letters are: A - Asian, B - Black, H - Hispanic, O - Oriental, W - White. The letters PI are occasionally used to denote Pacific Islander resulting in a four letter abbreviation [1]. The second letter denotes gender: F - Female, M - Male. The final letter denotes whether the subject is legally an adult: A - Adult, J - Juvenile. Thus the initialism WFJ (or wfj) appearing after a subjects name in a police log would denote a white female juvenile. For other senses of this word, see race (disambiguation). ... This article or section should be merged with ethnic group Ethnicity is the cultural characteristics that connect a particular group or groups of people to each other. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Asian people. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Hispanic world Hispanic (Spanish: Hispano) is a term denoting a derivation from Spain, her people and culture. ... The term the Orient - literally meaning sunrise, east - is traditionally used to refer to Near, Middle, and Far Eastern countries. ... White (also White people, White race or Whites) is a term used for a certain ethnic group or racial classification of people. ... A Pacific Islander or Pacific Person (plural: Pacific People) is a term used in several places, such as New Zealand and the United States, to describe people of a certain heritage. ... Gender describes a classification using masculinity and femininity. ... The mirror of the Roman Goddess Venus is often used to represent the female sex. ... The shield and spear of the Roman God Mars are often used to represent the male sex In heterogamous species, male is the sex of an organism, or of a part of an organism, which typically produces smaller, mobile gametes (spermatozoa) that are able to fertilise female gametes (ova). ... The term adult describes any mature organism, but normally it refers to a human: one that is no longer a child / minor and is now either a man or a woman. ... In law, a person who is not yet a legal adult is known as a minor (known in some places as an infant or juvenile). ...

Code violations

• HS - Health and Safety Code
• PC - Penal Code
• VC - Vehicle Code
• WI - Welfare & Institutions Code
• Fel. - Felony
• Misd. - Misdemeanor
• Inf. - Infraction

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Criminal Code. ... A felony, in many common law legal systems, is the term for a very serious crime, whereas misdemeanors are considered to be less serious offenses. ... A misdemeanors (or misdemeanour), in many common law legal systems, is a lesser criminal act. ... Infraction as a general term means a violation of a rule or local ordinance, regulation, promise, obligation, or contract. ...

Initialisms describing situations

• GOA - Gone On Arrival
• QOA - Quiet On Arrival
• DOA - Dead On Arrival
• UTL - Unable To Locate
• MIA - Missing In Action

Miscellaneous initialisms

• APB - All Points Bulletin
• APC - All Points County
• CJ - County Jail
• DA - District Attorney
• DOB - Date Of Birth
• PD - Police Department
• RP - Reporting Person/Party
• SO - Sheriff's Office

An All Points Bulletin (APB) is a bulletin broadcast to all parties, often with information about a suspect who is to be detained or a person to be on the look out for. ... A county jail is a place of detention for people awaiting trial, or for those who have been convicted of a misdemeanor and are serving a sentence of less than one year. ... A district attorney is, in some U.S. jurisdictions, the title of the local public official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminals. ... A birthday is the date on which a person was born. ... A car of the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, England Police forces are government organisations charged with the responsibility of maintaining law and order. ... Sheriff is both a political and a legal office held under English common law, Scots law or U.S. common law, or the person who holds such office. ...

Miscellaneous acronyms

• AFIS - Automated Fingerprint Identification System
• CODIS - Combined DNA Index System
• IAFIS - Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System
• VIN - Vehicle Identification Number

Automated Fingerprint Identification System (or AFIS) is a system to automatically match one or many unknown fingerprints against a database of known prints. ... The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is the FBIs national databases of genetic identification codes. ... The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) is a national fingerprint and criminal history system maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). ... Vehicle identification numbers (VINs) are used to uniquely identify motor vehicles. ...

Miscellaneous abbreviations

• BKD - Booked (into county jail)
• BLK - Street block
• BTWN - Between
• DESC - Description
• JUV - Juvenile
• MOD - Model (of vehicle, for example)
• PROP - Property
• REG - Vehicle registration
• RELD/RLSD - Released
• RPTS - Reports (verb)
• SER - Serial number
• SUSP - Suspect
• TKN - Taken
• UNK - Unknown
• VEH - Vehicle
• VIC - Victim

City Blocks are a part of the fictional universe recounted in the Judge Dredd series that appears in the UK comic book 2000 AD. // Overview Also known as starscrapers or stratoscrapers (compare skyscraper), they are the most common form of mass-housing in Mega-City One, averaging a population of... // A vehicle registration plate, usually called license plate or number plate (often referred to simply as a plate, or colloquially tag) is a small metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle for official identification purposes. ... A serial number is a unique number that is one of a series assigned for identification which varies from its successor or predecessor by a fixed discrete integer value. ... In the parlance of criminal justice, a suspect is a term used to refer to a person, known or unknown, suspected of committing a crime. ...

External links

• Police Jargon: How to Talk Like a Cop (a guide by Lynda Sue Cooper)
• Killeen Police Jargon Page (the local police department in Killeen, Texas)
• North Yorkshire Police Jargon Buster (the Police Force in North Yorkshire, England)
• Menlo Park Police Daily Log Glossary (PDF format) (the local police department in Menlo Park, California)
• Staffordshire Police Jargon Buster (the Police Force in Staffordshire, England)