Police language reflects job anchored between street, court

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jan 3, 2005 by ANSLEE WILLETT THE GAZETTE

Victims aren't hurt, they sustain bodily injury.

Burglars don't break in, they gain entry.

Bicycles don't crash into poles, it's bicycle versus pole.

This is how cops talk.

In his book "Blue Blood," Edward Conlon, a New York City police officer and Harvard graduate, summed up cop talk as a "shotgun marriage of street slang and legalese."

It's almost a different language. Old-timers are more skilled than rookies.

It's not something that's taught in the Colorado Springs Police Department's Training Academy. There's no course titled "Cop Speak 101" in which recruits learn to use terms for crimes and criminals that other people don't understand.

"We don't train them what to say or what not to say other than to be detailed, straightforward and in plain English," said Sgt. Chuck Rabideau, the recruit training supervisor.

Still, he knows that might not last. He hears cop jargon and legalese weaved into conversations and reports.

"They get out there and get exposed to the legal system and other cops," he said. "It is harped on them to sound professional. They can be very detailed, but it's like they're not speaking in English."

Lynda Sandoval is recovering from the syndrome that plagues many officers, making them use longer words and often the vaguest.

"I think I've pretty well broken free," said Sandoval, who spent seven years with the Wheat Ridge Police Department before becoming a published writer.

She still has slip-ups -- six years after leaving the force. When she says "stand by" and "affirmative," her family and friends poke fun.

She laughs, too.

Rabideau has his own downfall with the language.

"I am an acronym addict," he said.

DB means dead body. BOLO means be on the lookout, typically for a suspect.

"Even when my wife and I are talking, my kids will speak up and ask, 'What's a TA?'" Rabideau said.

That's a traffic accident.

Fourth Judicial District Attorney Jeanne Smith noted that every profession has its own language. She tries teaching officers not to put off juries with jargon.

"We try to get them to sit down and tell a story," she said. "Over coffee, you wouldn't say, 'I exited my vehicle.' You got out."

Other cop talk that has stood out in her memory: "The subject resisted my efforts to apply restraints to his wrists" and "I then conducted a pat search of the vehicle."

"And it's never a car," Smith said. "It's always a vehicle."

Sandoval -- who has several published books, including "True Blue: An Insider's Guide to Street Cops for Writers" -- said she picked up the jargon during the year she was a police dispatcher before becoming an officer.

She was flooded with it as a recruit.

"If you were trying to arrest somebody who wouldn't comply, you couldn't say you threw him to the floor. We had to say, 'We assisted him to the floor within policy.' A lot of it has to do with if it goes to court," Sandoval said.

A judge and jury may respond better to the latter. It sounds kinder, more civil, like a good cop.

Much of the wording bothered Sandoval.

"They just speak that way and think it's normal," she said from her home in the Denver area. "For the department, I used to speak to businesses and schools. I got used to translating cop into English."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0366 or awillett@gazette.com