From the SoCalScan group...

Effective this Sunday, May 16, LAPD will discontinue use of the 22-year old
and often misunderstood "Code Two High" dispatching procedure.

Heretofore there have been four categories of call DISPATCHING priority:

* CODE 3: Emergency Calls - Priority Level 1 / Code 3 response (siren/red
lights)

* CODE 2 HIGH: Urgent & Potentially Life-threatening - Priority Level 1 /
Code 2 response (respond immediately, obey rules of the road)

* CODE 2: Urgent, but not necessarily life-threatening - Priority 2 / Code
2 response

* (NON-CODED): Not urgent or emergency, respond as soon as practicable =
Priority Level 3 / No Code

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With the elimination of Code 2 High, all calls received that may represent a
life-threatening situation SHALL be dispatched as Code 3, and the operator
taking the call will immediately initate a single-stage dispatch broadcast
including (a) Alert Tone, (b) Division of Occurrence, (c) type of call, (d)
location, (e) if possible, a brief description of suspect, vehicle and
weapon, (f) incident number, (g) reporting district ("RD") of call.

The operator (usually the "EBO"/call-taker) will immediately queue the call
to the RTO for the division of occurrence, and return to the caller to
obtain (and then broadcast) any supplemental information.

Officers dispatched to a Code 3 call shall advise the operator of their
starting location, and the RTO will broadcast that, for example, "2A21 is
responding Code 3 from Wilshire and Alvarado to 6th Street & Shatto Place."

Code 2 calls (urgent but not life-threatening) will be queued to and
dispatched by the RTO for the division of occurrence.

As has always been the policy at LAPD, an officer can decide, based on
additional information he/she may have, to upgrade to Code 3 any Code 2 or
non-coded call. The officer shall notify the RTO, who will broadcast that
Code 3 response information.

Bottom line, expect more Code 3 calls, possibly A LOT more.

Code-2 calls will generally be broadcast only on the
division of occurrence.