Police Callsign Types
Call sign Format
With the exception of Counties Manukau and Bay of Plenty police districts, who operate a different system, unit call signs follow this format:
- Two characters: indicating the home station, beat area or district in which the unit primarily operates.
- A character indicating the unit type.
- Up to three characters which uniquely identify the unit.
In the Counties Manukau and Bay of Plenty police districts, unit call signs are five characters in length and follow this format:
- Two characters that identify the geographical area of responsibility.
- A letter and digit that identify the unit type.
- Unique identifier of the unit: Digit = supervisory/NCO level and above; Letter = others.
Examples:
- TNI3 Takapuna I-Car (general duties), late shift.
- SVM1 Auckland Motorways motorcycle unit, section 1.
- CMT8C Counties Manukau serious crash unit officer.
Home station
For a list of the home station codes, see Category:Police callsigns for a list of each region page with police callsigns.
Special callsigns
Some non standard callsigns are used for special purposes.
Callsign | Description |
---|---|
Zero Alpha | Armed Offenders Squad incident commander |
Northcomm Alpha | Shift Commander, Northern Comm Centre |
Central Alpha | Shift Commander, Central Comm Centre |
Southcomm Alpha | Shift Commander, Southern Comm Centre |
AVSEC | Aviation Security Service pandemic response assistance team |
DCC | District Command Centre |
ATOC | Auckland Transport Operations Centre (some staff use old one of JTOC) |
WNTOC | Wellington Transport Operations Centre |
Unit type
Code | Description | Counties Manukau/Bay of Plenty Areas |
---|---|---|
A | Commissioned Officer (Inspector etc) | Commissioned Officer |
B | Beat Unit | Beat Unit |
C | Crime Car/CIB Patrol | Crime Car/CIB Patrol |
CP | Community Patrol (civilians) | ?? |
D | Dog Patrol (Delta) | Dog Patrol (Delta) |
E | Uniform Enquiry Car | Reserved |
F | Forensics (Fingerprints/Photos) | Forensics/SOCO |
FX | Serious Crash | ? |
G | Logistics | Prosecutions |
H | Highway Patrol Unit | Highway/Motorway Patrol Unit |
I | Incident Patrol (I-Car) | Public Safety Team (Multi Crew) |
J | Combined Investigative Unit | Public Safety Team (Single Crew) |
K | Scene of Crime Officer (SOCO) | Reserved |
L | Maritime Launch | Custody Unit/Support |
M | Mounted Patrol (Motorcycle/Bicycle) | DCC Support/Intel Unit |
N | Senior Sergeant | Senior Sergeant |
O | Community Policing | Community Policing |
P | Team Policing | Team Policing |
Q | Single Crew Patrol (Q-Car) | Training |
R | Rural Patrol Car | Road Crime Unit |
S | Sergeant - Public Safety (also used added after other prefixes) | Sergeant - Public Safety |
T | Traffic Unit | Road Policing/SCU/CVST |
TST | ?? | >> |
U | Motorway Patrol Unit | Operation A |
V | Sergeant - Traffic | Operation B |
W | Special Traffic (Speed Cameras/CVST) | Maritime Launch/PNT/AOS/STG |
X | General CIB | General CIB |
Y | Youth Aid/Education | Major CIB |
YZ | Armed response unit? | ?? |
Z | Diplomatic/VIP/Witness Protection | Maori Warden/Camera Operator/Community Patrol |