the twenty

English translation: location

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:the twenty
Selected answer:location
Entered by: Jack Doughty

12:58 Dec 5, 2015
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Art/Literary - Military / Defense / NYC police speak
English term or phrase: the twenty
My radio interrupted. “Monitor to Red Leader.”
I answered it on the run. “Go ahead, Monitor.”
“I’ve got you on traffic cam. There’s transport on Twenty-First Street a block ahead of you. It’s all yours.”
“Thank you, Monitor,” I said as the team piled in. “What’s the twenty on our target?”
“Our eye in the sky saw them pull into a garage at Eighty-Eight Crane six minutes ago.”

Police action in NYC. The location is Queens.
I've found the police radio signal codes, but no "twenty" here.
http://www.n2nov.net/nypdcodes.html
What else could it be?
allp
Poland
Local time: 20:45
location
Explanation:
Quoting reference below:

what's your 20?
The phrase essentially means, "What is your location?" or "Identify your position," but is a corrupted phrase from the original "10-20" used by United States law enforcement to verbally encode their radio transmissions to that non-police listeners would not easily discover police operations, as well as to communicate quicker and more efficiently by standardizing frequently used phrases.

These verbally-coded messages were called "10 codes", of which "10-20" stood for "Identify your position," or "Where are you?" originally.

Selected response from:

Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:45
Grading comment
Thank you, Jack.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +7location
Jack Doughty


  

Answers


8 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +7
location


Explanation:
Quoting reference below:

what's your 20?
The phrase essentially means, "What is your location?" or "Identify your position," but is a corrupted phrase from the original "10-20" used by United States law enforcement to verbally encode their radio transmissions to that non-police listeners would not easily discover police operations, as well as to communicate quicker and more efficiently by standardizing frequently used phrases.

These verbally-coded messages were called "10 codes", of which "10-20" stood for "Identify your position," or "Where are you?" originally.




    Reference: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=what's+y...
Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:45
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 51
Grading comment
Thank you, Jack.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Charles Davis
5 mins
  -> Thank you.

agree  Yvonne Gallagher
1 hr
  -> Thank you.

agree  Sheri P
1 hr
  -> Thank you.

agree  Phong Le
1 hr
  -> Thank you.

agree  Md. Tanjimul Islam Jiban
3 hrs
  -> Тhank you.

agree  Mikhail Korolev
4 hrs
  -> Тhank you.

agree  Jean-Claude Gouin: 10-4
8 hrs
  -> Тhank you.
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.

You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.

KudoZ™ translation help

The KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.


See also:
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search