How to Read Police Report Codes and Abbreviations

Learning how to read police report codes and abbreviations comes down to three things: recognizing the 24-hour timestamp, knowing which national coding system your agency draws from, and having the code legend for the specific report in front of you. Most of what looks like cryptic shorthand traces back to two federal frameworks (NIBRS and NCIC) plus a stock of abbreviations that officers share across departments. Once you can spot the family a code belongs to, translating it is straightforward.

The 24-Hour Clock

The first thing that stops most readers is the time. Law enforcement writes timestamps on a 24-hour clock, not AM/PM. For any hour after noon, subtract 12 to get standard time. So 1400 is 2:00 PM, 1730 is 5:30 PM, 2100 is 9:00 PM. Midnight is 0000 and noon is 1200. An incident logged at 0315 happened at 3:15 in the morning. The convention removes any question about day versus night.

The Two National Coding Systems Behind Most Codes

Local departments rarely invent their offense codes from scratch. They pull from one or both of the federal systems below, sometimes with agency-specific additions layered on top. Identifying which system your report uses is usually the fastest route to decoding it.

NIBRS Offense Codes

The National Incident-Based Reporting System is the FBI’s crime data framework. As of January 1, 2021, the FBI required participating agencies to move from the older Summary Reporting System to NIBRS.1FBI. 30 Questions and Answers About NIBRS Transition

NIBRS sorts offenses into Group A (serious crimes, reported in detail) and Group B (less serious, tracked mainly through arrests). Group A offenses get alphanumeric codes. A few you’re likely to see:

  • 13A – aggravated assault
  • 13B – simple assault
  • 13C – intimidation
  • 23A – pocket-picking
  • 23B – purse-snatching
  • 23C – shoplifting
  • 23D – theft from a building
  • 23F – theft from a motor vehicle
  • 23G – theft of motor vehicle parts
  • 240 – motor vehicle theft
  • 26B – credit card fraud2FBI. NIBRS Offense Codes

If a code on your report looks like this (a number plus a letter, or a three-digit number in one of these ranges), it’s almost certainly NIBRS or NIBRS-derived.

NCIC Codes

The National Crime Information Center manual uses four-digit numeric codes grouped by offense category:

  • 0900 series – homicide (0901 through 0999)
  • 1200 series – robbery
  • 2300 series – larceny and theft
  • 3500 series – drug offenses
  • 5200 series – weapon offenses

NCIC codes often carry more specificity than NIBRS. Street robbery with a gun is 1204; carjacking is 1212. Cocaine possession is 3532; marijuana possession is 3562.

Many agencies blend the two systems or add local variations, so a code that means “aggravated assault with a handgun” in one city may use a different number in the next county. Some departments pack extra information into a single field using formats like “051A,” where the letters signal a weapon or circumstance. When you can’t tell which system applies, that’s when the agency’s code legend becomes essential.

Incident and Offense Codes

The incident code (sometimes labeled offense code or classification code) sits near the top of the report alongside the case number and labels the primary event. It’s the same NIBRS or NCIC value discussed above, promoted to the header as a quick-reference tag for the whole report. If a report shows more than one incident code, the officer is flagging multiple offenses from the same event.

Disposition Codes

Disposition codes appear in a status field, usually near the bottom of the report or in a summary box, and they tell you what happened with the case after it was filed. People overlook these, but they matter for insurance claims and any later legal proceeding.

The standard categories, drawn from FBI reporting practice, are:

  • Cleared by arrest. An officer made an arrest and no further investigation is needed.
  • Cleared by exceptional means. The department identified the offender and had enough for an arrest, but something outside its control prevented one. Common reasons: the suspect died, the victim refused to cooperate, or another jurisdiction took the case.
  • Inactive. Leads are exhausted. The case isn’t closed, but no one is working it.
  • Unfounded. After investigation, the incident was determined to be false or baseless. This is not “unresolved”; it means the event as described didn’t happen.
  • Open/active. Investigation is ongoing.

An “unfounded” designation on a report you filed can sink an insurance claim, because it effectively says the insurer’s basis for a payout didn’t occur. If you think that designation is wrong, address it quickly (see the section on errors below).

Common Abbreviations

Beyond the numerical codes, reports lean on a shared vocabulary of shorthand. Officers use these to write faster, and most departments recognize the same set.

People and Roles

  • DOB – date of birth
  • RP – reporting party (the person who called it in)
  • VIC – victim
  • WIT – witness
  • SUSP or S – suspect
  • AKA – also known as (alias)
  • LKA – last known address
  • MO – modus operandi (the suspect’s pattern or method)
  • DL – driver’s license
  • NFI – no further information

In narratives, officers often number the parties: V1 for victim one, S1 for suspect one, W2 for witness two.

Vehicles and Property

Vehicle fields draw from the FBI’s NCIC system:

  • VMA – vehicle make
  • VMO – vehicle model
  • VYR – vehicle year
  • VCO – vehicle color
  • VST – vehicle style (sedan, SUV, and so on)
  • VIN – vehicle identification number
  • SER – serial number (for other property)

Property fields feed national stolen-property databases, which is why they’re formatted so uniformly. You may also see item-type shorthand like JWL for jewelry.

Situation and Response

  • GOA – gone on arrival
  • UTL – unable to locate
  • DV – domestic violence
  • GSW – gunshot wound
  • FX – fracture
  • LAC – laceration
  • CPR – cardiopulmonary resuscitation (administered at scene)
  • POV – privately owned vehicle

One caution: don’t confuse written report abbreviations with radio “10-codes” (10-4, 10-20, and so on). Those are verbal shorthand and rarely appear in written reports. If a 10-code shows up in a narrative, the officer is usually quoting a radio transmission.

Traffic Crash Report Codes

Crash reports are the type most civilians actually read, and they carry an extra layer of codes on top of the standard incident classifications.

Contributing Factor Codes

Every crash report has a field for what caused or contributed to the collision. The codes are numbered, covering situations like failure to yield, following too closely, driver inattention, speeding, running a stop sign, and fatigue. The exact numbers vary by state, but the categories are standardized nationally through the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC), published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. MMUCC is a voluntary set of data elements states use as the baseline for their crash forms, which is why a “failure to yield” concept translates across state lines even when the numbers don’t match.3NHTSA. Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria

Watch for the primary collision factor (PCF) field. It identifies which driver action the officer decided was the main cause of the crash, and it’s the field insurance adjusters focus on when deciding fault.

Sobriety and Impairment Codes

Common shorthand:

A separate code field indicates whether the test was breath, blood, or urine, and whether the driver refused testing.

Injury Severity Codes

Most states share the same injury scale: no injury, possible injury, non-incapacitating injury, incapacitating injury, and fatal. Each level gets a letter or number code. The category determines how the crash is reported to state and federal databases and how insurers rank the seriousness of a claim.

Reading the Narrative

The narrative is the officer’s written account of what happened, and it’s the most readable part of the report. It usually runs chronologically: how the officer was dispatched or came upon the scene, what they observed on arrival, what each party said, what physical evidence was present, and what action they took.

Pay attention to how the officer separates direct observation from hearsay. Phrases like “the victim stated” or “the witness reported” flag secondhand information. “I observed” or “upon arrival, I noticed” signal the officer’s own observation. That distinction carries real weight in court.

Abbreviations show up in the narrative too. If one stumps you, check the coded fields elsewhere in the report; the narrative often supplies the context that makes a cryptic code click.

Getting the Code Legend for Your Report

There is no single universal decoder for police report codes. NIBRS and NCIC provide the shared framework, but each agency can add codes, adjust numbering, or use local classifications. A code used by a city police department may mean something different at the county sheriff’s office a few miles away.

Start with the report itself. Some agencies attach a code legend as a separate page or print definitions on the back of the form. Traffic crash reports are especially likely to include an overlay code sheet.

If no legend is included, contact the agency that produced the report. Most departments will send their code reference on request, and many post them online. When you call, ask specifically for the “code sheet” or “code legend” for the type of report you have (incident, crash, or arrest). Records staff handle these requests routinely.

For federal agencies, the Freedom of Information Act requires that written requests “reasonably describe the records” you’re seeking, and the agency must respond.5FOIA.gov. How to Make a FOIA Request For state and local agencies, each state has its own open records law that works the same way. Put the request in writing, identify the specific document (the code legend for the agency’s reporting system), and send it to the records division.

Why Parts of the Report Are Blacked Out

Copies released to the public routinely have information redacted. That’s not an error and not directed at you. Agencies are required to protect certain categories of data before releasing reports.

Commonly redacted items include Social Security numbers, dates of birth for minors (often replaced with initials), financial account numbers, driver’s license numbers, and home addresses of officers and certain witnesses. In federal court filings, the privacy rule requires only the last four digits of Social Security numbers and financial accounts, only the birth year, and initials for minors.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 5.2 – Privacy Protection for Filings Made With the Court State and local agencies follow similar principles under their own laws.

Active investigations bring additional redactions. Details about informants, investigative techniques, or information that could compromise a prosecution are withheld while the case is open, and more may become available once it closes. If you’re a party to the incident and need the unredacted version for your own legal matter, your attorney can often get it through discovery or a court order.

Fixing a Code That’s Wrong

Errors happen more often than people expect, and a wrong code can derail an insurance claim. Adjusters lean heavily on the coded fields. A contributing factor code that misattributes fault, or a disposition of “unfounded” on a legitimate incident, can cost real money.

How to correct it depends on the type of error.

Factual mistakes (wrong name, wrong plate, misspelled address) are the easiest to fix. Bring documentation showing the correct information to the agency that wrote the report. Officers will generally amend clear factual errors once you show proof.

Disputed findings (the officer’s fault determination, a witness statement you disagree with) are harder. Officers rarely alter their own conclusions after the fact. The workable option is to ask the agency to attach your written statement as a supplemental report or addendum, putting your version on the official record alongside the officer’s.

Act quickly. The sooner you flag an error, the fresher the officer’s memory and the easier the correction. If the agency refuses to amend or accept a supplement, a police report is still evidence, not a verdict. You can challenge its conclusions in the insurance claim process or in court, where the report is one piece of a larger picture.