Message to Virginia police: abandon radio codes, 10-4
The BBC Reports that the Virginia police have banned the use of radio codes such as 10-4.
The problem is that while some codes such as are standard across the forces others are not. So 10-50 can mean a car crash or officer in trouble. The incompatibility lead to serious communication problems when multiple police forces responded to the attack on the Pentagon on 9/11
Like the QWERTY typewriter keyboard the 10-4 codes were introduced so that humans could adapt to the limitations of technology. Early police radios were bulky with poor sound quality. Using codes made it easier to communicate information quickly and unambiguously. Once established the codes survived.
The lesson here is that technical interoperability can be defeated by social incompatibility. If the codes had been standardized when they first emerged they would still be useful today.
