When the police are reading out liscence plates why do they say, alpha, x-ray, etc.?

Question

When the police are reading out liscence plates why do they say, alpha, x-ray, etc.?

Answer 1

Phonetic alphabet is used by anyone using radios like police and aircraft. Radio is usually not as clear as one to one speech. Letters can be easily mistaken. The common one is "s" and "f" which sound very similar.

Answer 2

To decrease the number of misunderstandings over the radio.

Answer 3

To avoid confusion over like sounding letters i.e. m or n /p or b or c ort etc.

Answer 4

Copds wouldnt say alpha at all its

adam

boy

charles

david

edward

frank

george

henry

ida

john

king

lincoln and so on

And the reason they say that is because over radio its hard to distiguish letters like M and N

Answer 5

It isn't just the cops...

When I get dispatches I sometimes need them to say "E as in Edith"  or "A as in Apple" because so many letters sound the same over the phone...

The difference in 1 letter can ruin a whole day!

Answer 6

To make sure they get the plate right. E sounds like P/T/C etc

Answer 7

Using the phonetic alphbet makes communication easier.  That way you don't have to ask "Was that a P?  or a D?"

Edit:  Cops do use "alpha".  Some agencies use names (adam, david), others use the military's alpha, bravo...

Answer 8

So that the person listening doesn't make a mistake. E.g.N could sound like M, especially over a crackly radio.

Answer 9

It's called the phonetic alphabet (or formally known as the "international radiotelephony spelling alphabet"), and it's often used in two-way radio communications to make it easier to understand somebody reciting letters, especially if the audio is staticky. You should learn it, as it also comes in handy when you have a crappy cell phone signal.

Answer 10

It reminds me of the radio language we learned in high school. So that people dont hear the wrong letter they hear a word. I forget what it's called.

Answer 11

Its police protocol. Phonetic Alphabets are used nationwide by police in reading out license plates. It is standard procedure and is understood by police officers no matter what state they are in.

Answer 12

Because there are letters that sound like others so what they do is say alpha, x-ray, zebra, and what the dispatch does is take the first letter, so alpha, x-ray, zebra stands for axz, its faster than saying a as in apple, b as in boy...etc

Answer 13

Phonetic alphabet makes it easier to distinguish between similar sounding letters, "N" and "M" are easy to mix up November and Mike are not, (same with B and V, Bravo and Victor).

Answer 14

to make sure it is understood, just saying the letters over the radio can lead to confusion with people thinking theyve said '3' when its actually 'e' and stuff like that