U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Proper Radio Use

NCJ Number
191788
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 49 Issue: 8 Dated: August 2001 Pages: 34-36
Author(s)
Tim Schennum
Date Published
August 2001
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article presents principles for proper radio use by police officers.
Abstract
Officers' proper use of the radio requires accuracy, brevity, and clarity. Even seasoned officers sometimes provide inaccurate radio communications relating to specific locations. By not giving an accurate and specific location, responding officers will require more time to locate the officer and may also arrive in the line of fire in the event of gun fire. Brevity is also an officer safety issue. An unnecessarily lengthy radio conversation wastes valuable air time and may cause another officer with an emergency to be delayed in a call for help. A transmission should be no longer than 15 seconds, and if a longer conversation is required, there should be a break every 15 seconds to allow more urgent communications to be heard. Clarity is as much an officer safety issue as accuracy and brevity. To enhance clarity, officers should be instructed to use the phonetic alphabet and proper radio codes. Officers should speak clearly with an assertive voice without yelling. Interruptions occur over the radio regularly. Many times one officer will be in the midst of a transmission while another officer will key his or her microphone and cover the other. Some agencies broadcast a periodic tone over the radio to warn others of high priority calls. All employees should be attentive to all radio traffic, not only to avoid covering emergency traffic, but also to ensure accessibility when others may desperately need assistance. Agencies should have a standard format or protocol for radio use.