What is 10-4 and what it means?

10-4 is a Police code which simply means “Ok” and is used by USA Police every day. It is commonly used response during radio transmissions a.k.a. radio calls between police officers to confirm message is received and everything is fine.

10-4 Ok

10-4 Origin and history

You may want to know how did 10-4 get its name? Well, the 10-4 police code is part of so called ten-codes which was created by Illinois State Police Communications Director Charles Hopper back in 1937-40 years for Police officers to communicate secretly with each other over radio signals. Today, 10-4 code is officially registered and used by Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO).

Common uses for 10 4

As mentioned above 10-4 is a police code and it was created specially for police officers to communicate with one another. However as 10-4 means OK – a widely used term in both live and online conversations as well as talking and texting, it gained a lot of popularity. In modern world of 2022, 10-4 code is used by normal people and it has become street slang meaning “Ok”, “Okay”, “Understood”, “Got it”…

10-4 is also used in songs, one of the most well known case is Sam Williams new released song called “10-4” which got inspiration from police code 10-4.

Another common use for 10-4 code is by truck drivers who widely use it during phone communication with each other to let fellow driver know its Ok.

Police Code: 10-4 Meaning: Ok