Emergency Vehicle Radio

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An emergency vehicle radio, also known as police radio, is a special radio station heard in most emergency vehicles in the Grand Theft Auto series. With a few exceptions (i.e. the Predator), nearly all emergency vehicles have an emergency radio.

Description

Upon entering an emergency vehicle, such as a police car, ambulance, or fire truck, the player is not able to listen to the in-game radio. Instead, the emergency service's radio communications are heard, where chatter, instructions and information are relayed to and from a unseen police control room and police units on the ground. Messages heard include reports of disturbances, requests for help, replies and humorous verbal exchanges. Police often uses codes (such as the 10-codes, 11-codes, and so on) to provide short, clear and consistent messages. The codes used in GTA games do not appear to match codes use in the real world, although different police forces often use their own 10-codes. Strangely, the PC, Xbox, and mobile versions of GTA Vice City have two 10-codes that aren't numbers (10-SWITCH CAR representing either grand theft auto, a Rhino destroying a vehicle, or an incendiary attack on a vehicle; 10-VICE CITY representing a destroyed aircraft).

The audio track for the emergency radio are identical between GTA 1 and GTA III, having been featured as a partially inaudible looped track for police chatter only. In GTA Vice City, a completely new looped track was used, containing more specific dialog between the police dispatcher and police units on duty, as well as requests from police officer to dispatch medical or fire services. The loop is rerecorded again for GTA San Andreas, this time featuring two versions, one played under normal conditions, and another played during the Los Santos riots; the former implies that the emergency radio is used by all branches of the San Andreas Police Department, and the latter implies major disturbances occurring not only in Los Santos, but also Red County, Whetstone, San Fierro, and Las Venturas.

There are no emergency radio tracks in GTA Advance and GTA Chinatown Wars.

Radio reports on player's criminal acts

For much of the series, police chatter reporting of a disturbance by the player at that location can be heard, regardless of whether or not the player is in an emergency vehicle. In both GTA 1 and GTA 2, any infraction (including "Bump 'n' Shunt" vehicle collisions) are usually followed by police radio chatter reporting that a crime has been committed; reports of inbound law enforcement units can also be heard when the player is under higher wanted levels. Since GTA III (except GTA Chinatown Wars), such police chatter will only be heard when the player's wanted level is raised or is on a one-star level or above. Usually, it comes in the form of a spoken message along the lines of "We've got a [10-code representing the crime] in [north/east/south/west/central [insert location]." (e.g. in GTA San Andreas, when the player shoots two people, he will then hear the police radio say something like, “Head to a 10-37 in central Palisades. Suspect last seen on foot.”). Also, if the player has a wanted level, every two minutes or so, the police radio will usually call out the player's last known state, either on foot ("Suspect is on foot!") or in a vehicle ("Suspect [last seen] in a [color] [vehicle type]"). In GTA San Andreas, the police radio will always call out the player's last known state after calling out the crime.

For some reason, the police radio was dropped in GTA Liberty City Stories and GTA Vice City Stories. In GTA Advance, the police radio chatter may sometimes call out the player's last known state while calling out their performed crime as well (e.g. "We've got a 10- Suspect is on foot! - west Aspatria.").

If the player's wanted level increases in GTA IV, it can be beneficial to hijack a law enforcement vehicle as the player can use the radio to listen in on where the police are and what reinforcements are incoming. The player can listen to the police radio while being chased; it will indicate which vehicles the police are sending after the protagonist. The "dispatched from [location]" gives the general spawning point for police vehicles. Some are: "Dispatch X (number of police units, usually 2-6) units from __", "Dispatch Air Unit from __", "Dispatch FIB team from __", and "Dispatch NOOSE team from __". By knowing which law enforcement teams are located and when they will jump into action, the player can easily shake off the police. However, 10-codes (10-19, 10-74, etc.) are no longer used; instead, the actual names of crimes (e.g. grand theft auto, helicopter down, shooting, etc.) are used.

GTA V's police radio is virtually unchanged from GTA IV.

10-Codes in GTA III Era

Type of Crime 10-Code Used
III VC
(PS2,Xbox) 		VC
(All other versions) 		SA
Weapons discharge
Revved Chainsaw (GTA VC only)
Thrown explosives (GTA SA only) 		10-11 10-7 10-71 10-34
Shooting 10-8 10-17 10-19 10-37
Shooting involving police 10-81 10-19 10-51 10-81
Physical assault 10-50 10-71 10-1 10-13
Physical assault involving police 10-55 10-1 10-17 10-71
Vehicular hit-and-run 10-73 10-61 10-74 10-13
Vehicular hit-and-run involving police 10-74 10-74 10-77 10-81
Grand theft auto
Rhino destroying vehicles
(GTA VC only) 		10-65 10-51 10-SWITCH CAR 10-24
10-81※
Incendiary attacks 10-50
10-55
10-65 		10-71
10-1
10-51 		10-1
10-17
10-SWITCH CAR 		10-28
10-37
10-81
Driving dangerously close towards police 10-48 10-58 10-61 N/A
Attempted vehicular hit-and-run on police 10-29 10-57 10-58 10-21
Destroyed vehicle
Explosive attacks on vehicles 		N/A N/A N/A 10-90
Aircraft down 10-92 10-77 10-VICE CITY 10-91

※Only when stealing an HPV-1000 from a Motor Officer

Vehicles

The following vehicles are equiped with an emergency vehicle radio.

The vehicles mentioned below are vehicles which are emergency service vehicles, but are not equiped with an emergency vehicle radio.


Transcript

 This list may be inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date
You can help by updating or correcting it, it or discussing any changes that could be made on the talk page.

For a transcript of the emergency vehicle radio in each game, see below:

  • For GTA San Andreas, see /GTASA

See also


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