10 codes

I have to ask because I am mad! I work for a F/T EMS service and I am a retired FF/Medic who has a question. How many Fire/EMS services still use 10 codes. I hate hearing 10-5 when you clear at a call. I think and thought that things were suppose to change follwing 9/11. Am I wrong? I guess what concerns me the most is that I was a carear FF/Medic in S.C and then moved back up north and started to run F/T EMS and the codes are diffrent. Is anyone also running into this problem?

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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on June 11, 2008 at 6:27pm

We never really used 10 codes here in Chicagoland.

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Permalink Reply by DeeDee on June 11, 2008 at 7:22pm

well i dont think our dept. has ever thought of not using the 10 codes......we've never had to use 10-5 though.....in our area we hav to use them cuz the radio gets so congested we try not to talk as much unless we have to...so 10 codes really help out our dept. too much to get rid of em

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Permalink Reply by anne potter on June 11, 2008 at 11:39pm

must be just still left in certain states .. code black.. code 2 , priority 1 and 2.. or just plain english works,,,

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Permalink Reply by Reg Mathis on June 12, 2008 at 9:56am

This seems to be the general consensus around here as well. The holdouts on the "10" codes are Law Enforcement who seem determined to not let them die. And since we share dispatchers...

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Permalink Reply by walt on June 12, 2008 at 10:51am

i have been in the fire and ems service for 26 years i have never used a 10 code plain english works best.

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Permalink Reply by James Powell on June 12, 2008 at 11:38am

Yeah the 10-codes are still being used in my department but we are trying to use them less and less. We started training on radio talk to use plain english. I find 10-codes keep radio traffic down, but its not universal. now if 10-codes where universal I could see using them. I live in SC and when I went up north to vist some family I was listening to the scanner and yeah the 10-codes are way different.

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Permalink Reply by James Savage on June 12, 2008 at 3:54pm

Here in the New Orleans area, we have stopped using the codes. One problem here is that the codes where replaced with specific words to be used with no variation allowed. Also the region switched over to digital junk trash radios, so no one can hear you anyway.

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Permalink Reply by JoAnna Holloway on June 12, 2008 at 7:34pm

well when we clear a call we say 10-19, and on scene is 10-40

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Permalink Reply by jason lassiter on June 12, 2008 at 9:27pm

we still use 10 codes in alabama but 10-8 is when we clear a call

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Permalink Reply by Michael Hodge on June 12, 2008 at 10:00pm

I am a full time Firefighter/EMT and a volunteer firefighter for the county in tennessee. All the fire departments, EMS and law enforcement agencies in the county and cities have went to plain language. This is to comply with NIMS. It was my understanding that the whole nation was supposed to go to this. And if you didn't comply, you would not be able to recieve grant money. It makes things alot easier when dealing with mutual aid calls with other counties and cities because not everyone had the same 10 codes.

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Permalink Reply by steve price on June 12, 2008 at 10:31pm

having grown up listening to a plecktron and a scanner my department has always used plain english ,with the exception of a suicide or an attempted suicide thats just called a "code 90"