Thirty-twelve, good buddy
(ten-four, ten-four, ten-four)

As so often happens the solution to a problem later becomes a problem itself. Witness then the utter chaos in the world of "ten codes". It would not be so if there were a single standard for what they mean. But there isn't, and "10-55" where I live means ambulance (though formally it's supposed to mean "send an ambulance"). Some places it means drunk driver. Some places it means officer down. Put people from all these places together on an incident and you got trouble. Which is why in the Incident Command System, which has lately become a part of a larger National Incident Management System, use of ten codes is strictly forbidden.

Then there's the awful slangy usage. One thing that is pretty well standard is "10-4", and it means "understood". But I hear things like "Is everything 10-4?" and the response "10-4." And the other day "the driver is 10-4" (meaning sober). None of these things mean "understood".

In the thus-far abortive effort to wean law enforcement off ten codes, in the interest of interoperability, pretty much all efforts have come to naught. So here's an idea ... but first a word from our sponsor.

"Hello."

OK, here's the idea. You can't just suddenly give everybody a brain transplant and have them speaking plain English. Start somewhere. I suggest the code with the absolute worst usage, the slangy 10-4. Give them a list of standard phrases, including "affirmative" and "understood", to use instead. Get them used to it that way. And assess a penalty of a quarter or a dollar every time they say "10-4". The money can go into a fund for steaks at the Christmas party.

Of course you'd want to provide the full list of what to say for all circumstances, and hopefully the program would actually go somewhere.