Friday, April 08, 2005

That's a Big Ten-Four

Here is a heaping spoonful of my favorite fun and commonly used police dispatcher jargon. This is not approved by, nor even necessarily known, by my police department or any of its command staff.

DWHUA Driving With Head Up Ass

NHI No Humans Involved. Criminals victimizing other criminals. See: Driveby Shooting.

Weenie Wagger Male committing indecent exposure. Also, rude.

ABW's The sanitizing wipes we use to clean our stations between operators. The containers look like baby wipes except for the big baby sticker with a red circle around it and a red slash through it. I take credit for coining this one. Who knew it would catch on?

to Jack someone UP When a police officer stops a subject who looks suspicious or who is likely involved in criminal activity but not actually committing a crime at the time: a known prostitute, a known drug dealer, a group of teens out late acting like idiots, etc. It's proactive policing intended to have these subjects go straight, go home, or just go away.

Tango We cannot say "thank you" on the radio because it is a waste of precious airtime. Nonetheless, folks insist on thanking each other by saying "tango" (the phonetic word for the letter "t"). Note that "thank you" and "tango" take up the same amount of airtime.

Tango Uniform Tits Up. Dead. Usually used for computers or vehicles.

The following are medic terms brought brought to us by the lovely Lilly Pasta from her former life as a paramedic and which have been folded into the meringue of dispatch jargon (and also make a great dessert topping):

DJF Doin' Just Fine. What you are if you are not yet a patient

CTD Circling The Drain. When a patient's condition is worsening, likely to the point of...

FTD Fixin' To Die When a patient will not escape the drain and is therefore just about to be...

DRT Dead Right There. A-beedeebeedeebeedee That's All Folks!


I'm sure there will be more added to this list later.

E

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