Ten codes, police 10 codes are a common form of radio communication, passing along information or queries to other offices and the station. They useful due both the their brevity and limited knowledge of such by those they might not wish to follow their conversations. Common among those codes are; 10-4 meaning Affirmative, 10-10, Negative, 10-17, In Route.

10-99 is a code often used for special, specific situations by different police departments.

Up here atop the world in Fairbanks, Alaska, the local police would make a regular, nightly check of Birch Hill Cemetery. They’d drive to the main gate, unlock the padlock, re-lock it when they were inside. They then would drive through the cemetery and unlock the padlock on the back gate and leave.

Local kids found it humorous to put another padlock on the back gate, one to which the police had no key, and after they were past the main gate put an extra padlock on that one as well.

So! 10-99 became part of the local police code meaning “Hey, those darn kids, locked us in the cemetery again, sent someone up with the bolt cutters asap and let us out!”