10-10 at the War Bonnet
A story from the archives. 10-10 I worked patrol on the Menominee Indian reservation from 1994-1998. Dispatch and patrol used ten-codes to communicate calls or problems that an officer needed to respond to. You can now get a copy of ten-codes off the Internet, but at the time, they were sort of a secret. Some of the most common were 10-4 (acknowledged), 10-12 (standby), 10-20 (location), and 10-76, meaning I’m enroute. One of the most common calls and most exciting I would hear would be “Menominee, twelve-six-nine, 10-10, War Bonnet” The War Bonnet was the most popular bar on the Rez and a 10-10 is a fight in progress. Sometimes, it involved multiple subjects, sometimes it involved weapons, every time, the subjects were intoxicated to some degree. Regardless, I would respond, “twelve-six-nine’s 10-76”. 10-10 is an important call. It is one of the first you memorize. It is one of the few ten codes that all units responded to. It’s dangerous, it’s time consuming and for young eager ...
