APCO radiotelephony spelling alphabet
 | This article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. (October 2009) |
The LAPD phonetic alphabet is a phonetic alphabet, similar to the ICAO spelling alphabet, that is used by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and other local and state law enforcement agencies across the state of California and elsewhere in the United States.It is the 'over the air' communication used for properly understanding a broadcast of letters in the form of easily understood words. It is not a phonetic alphabet in the sense of a system for transcribing speech sounds, for which see the phonetic alphabet disambiguation page and phonetic notation.
History
At some point in the early history of emergency service mobile radio systems, the LAPD developed its own phonetic alphabet for relaying precise word spellings. For example, the license plate "8QXG518" might be read by a civilian as "eight cue ex jee five eighteen" but with accuracy being paramount, the police dispatcher would voice it as "eight queen x-ray george five one eight." Despite the development in 1941 of the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet and its replacement, circa 1956, by the NATO phonetic alphabet (currently used by U.S. military, civil aviation, telecommunications, and some law enforcement agencies), the LAPD and other law enforcement and emergency service agencies throughout the United States continue to use it.[citation needed]
The LAPD phonetic alphabet is also known as the APCO phonetic alphabet, named after the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) [1], which was responsible for making the LAPD alphabet known and adopted by other law enforcement agencies in the US.
Popular culture
The origin of the name Adam-12 from the television series with that same title is believed to have come from this alphabet. To the present, the LAPD calls its basic two-man patrol car an "A" unit - and the letter "A" is spoken as "Adam" in the phonetic alphabet. So 1-Adam-12 translates to the Adam unit assigned to Beat 12 in Division One [LAPD Central Division].
In the television show CHiPs, motorcycle units were identified with the letter M, such as 7M4 (Seven Mary Four) for officer Frank Poncherello.
Also, since many police, fire department, and rescue squad TV programs and movies are set in Los Angeles, the words of the LAPD phonetic alphabet have become familiar in the United States, Canada and English-speaking countries around the world.[citation needed] - due to the wide reach of American entertainment media.
Table
The LAPD phonetic alphabet represents the letters of the English alphabet using words as follows:
| Letter | Phonetic |
|---|---|
| A | Adam |
| B | Bright |
| C | Charles |
| D | David |
| E | Edward |
| F | Frank |
| G | George |
| H | Henry |
| I | Ida |
| J | John |
| K | King |
| L | Lincoln |
| M | Mary |
| N | Nora |
| O | Ocean |
| P | Paul |
| Q | Queen |
| R | Robert |
| S | Sam |
| T | Tom |
| U | Union |
| V | Victor |
| W | William |
| X | X-ray |
| Y | Young |
| Z | Zebra |
| 0 | Zero |
| 1 | One |
| 2 | Two |
| 3 | Three |
| 4 | Four |
| 5 | Five |
| 6 | Six |
| 7 | Seven |
| 8 | Eight |
| 9 | Niner |
There are several local variations of this system in use. The California Highway Patrol, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, San Jose Police Department and the San Francisco Police Department, along with other agencies across the West Coast and Southwestern United States, as well as the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department use versions that either map the letter "Y" to "Yellow" and other agencies' versions map the letter "B" to "Baker" or "Bravo" or use variations that include mapping the letter "N" to "Nancy" instead of "Nora" or mapping the letter "Y" to "Yesterday."
The use of the word "Ocean" seems to be advantageous in the radio communication of the letter "O" because it begins with the long, clear vowel "O". The phonetic words "Ida" and "Union" feature this same advantage.
However, phonetic alphabets seem to rarely use initial long vowels. With the exception of "Uniform", none of the initial vowels in the NATO alphabet are like this. In an earlier U.S. military alphabet, "A" was indicated by "Able", which does start with a long "A", but has since been changed to Alpha.
See also
- ICAO/NATO phonetic alphabet - International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) phonetic alphabet, also used in the NATO
References
- "APCO Phonetics". Los Angeles County Disaster Communications Service. 2008. Provides the LASD and LACDCS APCO Phonetic alphabet,