Police Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Citations in the Category Police

Police, cops, officers, correctional officers, security guards, military police. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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187 n. She later added, the students in question write “187” about him. It’s street lingo for a homicide. [California English Crime & Prisons Police Slang] [full cite] (Apr. 29, 2004)

187 n. The number 187 is frequently used in gang graffiti around the United States, and represents the number of the California Penal Code for homicide. Graffiti which includes 187 is literally making a death threat. [California English Crime & Prisons Police Slang] [full cite] (Apr. 29, 2004)

187 n. While the literal translation of the shirt is the police code for homicide ("187") followed by gang slang for police ("hudda"), many Valley police, school officials and gang experts see it another way: “Murder a Cop.” [California English Crime & Prisons Police Slang] [full cite] (Apr. 29, 2004)

187 n. They use graffiti to mark territory but also to send messages. In some cases, threats are made as when the number “187,” a gang’s name and an individual’s name appear. “That is a call to kill the person,” McDaniel said. [English Crime & Prisons Police] [full cite] (Jan. 6, 2005)

3-D adj. Say hello to the 3-D Yankees. In cop parlance, that’s short for Definitely Done Dancing, which is the way bodies in the morgue are referred to. [English Police Slang Abbreviation] [full cite] (Jun. 26, 2007)

airmail n. Arriving officers were pelted with debris from the rooftops. The “airmail,” as the practice is known among police, stopped only after NYPD helicopters were called in and chased off the assailants with spotlights. [English Police] [full cite] (Sep. 14, 2005)

bang the books v. When I went to the field, I saw things like voucher fraud and banging the books—which means time and attendance fraud—and some of us were bitterly disappointed about that. But we rationalized that we were fighting a bigger enemy and every [organization] has fraud. [English United States Crime & Prisons Money & Finance Police] [full cite] (Oct. 6, 2004)

banked adj. Learning of continued criminal behavior actually causes more work, so is largely avoided (as noted above at the end of the last paragraph). In fact, there are banked caseloads in the County of San Francisco that have over 20,000 people on them (source: a San Francisco Deputy Probation Officer I attended the Probation Officer Core Course with—name withheld for obvious reasons). In the event that you do not know what “banked” represents in Probation parlance, it means that the person is still on probation, but they are no longer required to report to Probation, and their file is merely maintained in the event that they either commit a new crime, or the Court wants additional information on their case. [English Law Police Jargon] [full cite] (Jan. 30, 2008)

battery pack n. Brannon was described by a local gang investigator as a “battery pack” within his gang set, a term used to describe a member who is always on the streets, willing to do anything for the gang. The investigator said Brannon has been sent a variety of gang tasks, from murders to decoy tasks. [English Crime & Prisons Police] [full cite] (Jun. 15, 2007)

Beavis and Butthead lab n. The lab appeared to be small, a “mom and pop or a Beavis and Butthead lab,” Burden said, and was probably used to supply meth to just Lobue and a couple other users. [English Drugs Police Slang] [full cite] (Mar. 19, 2007)

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