The Gun Counter

In TV and movies, police, military, and other operatives seem to say "copy that" continually.

I know we have several members here currently or formerly in law enforcement or military service (thanks!). Do people who are the real deal actually say "copy that" to acknowledge that they've heard something?

Seems like in older shows, it was "affirmative."

I've heard it used in Fire/LE communications, but not extensively.

Most often I hear "clear" in the Fire Service meaning "I heard and understand your last transmission". (Drives my Ham radio side nuts as to me it means "I am leaving the frequency" either to another one or turning off the radio entirely. I tend to use "understood" or "acknowledged" instead). It might also be a regional thing. I know TV tends to use NYPD/LAPD terminology a lot no matter where the show is set.

When I was active duty, "roger" and "roger that" were used most often in this context, but that might have been an AF thing.

randy wrote: ↑Mon Oct 01, 2018 4:22 pm When I was active duty, "roger" and "roger that" were used most often in this context, but that might have been an AF thing.

Roger is the acknowledgement term I'm most familiar with.

Unless they've got really, really good advisors (who they actually listen to, nearly everything on TV or in the movies is terrible regarding any sort of protocol or procedures. The intersection of medical and police is habitually abysmal. Most of the stupidity can be ignored, as long as it's not specifically driving the plot.

I'd say 90% of the time we'd say roger, with a exceptions generally made for specific situations or acknowledging a lengthier transmission. "Proceed on axis of advance and engage," would just got a roger (along with station ID). Whereas a detailed modification to the op or movement plan went get a repeat back of key points followed with, 'Understood (or Roger), will comply.' This is were Roger Wilco comes from, btw.

In some settings verbatim repeat backs are also used and of course the Navy frequently use, 'Aye,' for understand and 'Aye, aye," for understand, will comply.

TL;DR It's situational, but yes, 'Roger,' is common comms parlance.

Damnit, double posted. Just not my day for computer related taskings

Aaron wrote: ↑Mon Oct 01, 2018 11:14 pm Damnit, double posted.

No you didn't

Aaron wrote: ↑Mon Oct 01, 2018 11:10 pm I'd say 90% of the time we'd say roger, with a exceptions generally made for specific situations or acknowledging a lengthier transmission. "Proceed on axis of advance and engage," would just got a roger (along with station ID). Whereas a detailed modification to the op or movement plan went get a repeat back of key points followed with, 'Understood (or Roger), will comply.' This is were Roger Wilco comes from, btw.

Roger = "I understand."
Wilco = "I understand and will comply."

Because the meaning of Wilco includes the meaning of Roger, they should not be used together. On any Army radio net I ever used, saying "Roger Wilco" would get you chewed out, made fun of, or both.

The term Copy was generally used if you were repeating back something that needed to be verbatim correct, such as grid coordinates. "Copy, Alfa Bravo 1-2-3-4-5-6, over"

In my (limited) experience with LE, the terms "10-4" and/or "Clear" are generally used. No Roger or Wilco.

We use Copy in ham radio in a similar way such as "I Copy 3 Alpha Ohio".

An uncle of mine was an Army Red Leg in Germany in the 60's. He stated that, especially when working with Brit artillery, never use the word "repeat" when you want information repeated. They took that as "fire the same mission on the same coordinates again". He said they used the term "say again".

And thinking about it, I'm not sure that I've heard "copy that" over the air, only in face to face conversations. Maybe they are picking it up from TV?

Generally what I hear is 10-4.

OTA comms at work generally require a full read back of the instructions issued.

That said, I think we have a lot of retired LE in our company because I get 10 codes back as replies to emails at least a couple of times per day. (10-4 being the most common).