Clarity quest kills radio 'codes'

• By KIMBERLY VETTER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 13, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The way law enforcement, firefighters and paramedics talk to each other over the radios is changing.

Instead of using “codes” to communicate with each other, some agencies are just saying what they mean.

East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s deputies, for example, no longer say they are on their way to a “signal 45,” the agency’s code for a shooting. They say they are on their way to a shooting.

“It simplifies the communication process,” said Col. Ricky Adams, who implemented the use of plain talk at the Sheriff’s Office three months ago. “It eliminates confusion.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency started pushing first-responders to ditch code and use plain English after communications were garbled among agencies responding to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

On Oct. 1, 2006, FEMA’s National Incident Management System told first-responders that federal preparedness grant funding is contingent on the use of plain English in incidents requiring assistance from other agencies and jurisdictions.

Using such language is “critical and essential to ensuring efficient, clear communication,” a National Incident Management System document on FEMA’s Web site shows.

Barry Mounce with the Baton Rouge Fire Department teaches classes on the incident management system and said he doesn’t know of any jurisdiction that has been penalized for not using plain English.

Most agencies throughout the state, Mounce said, are complying with FEMA’s edict by phasing out the use of codes.

“It’s a gradual thing,” he said. “It’s not as easy as turning off a light switch.”

First-responders have been using code to communicate since at least the 1930s when the 10-code system was developed, the Association of Public Safety Officials’ Web site says.

Individual agencies have their own codes, called “signal codes.”

“Signal codes identify an incident, such as a shooting,” Adams said. “Ten-codes are more of a confirmation about radio communication.”