| Skel: 1. Short-hand for "skeleton"; i.e., what most drug-users wind up looking like. A derogatory term used to describe low-life junkies. Also refers to homeless vagrants. 2. From the book "The City in Slang, New York Life and Popular S peech," by Irving Lewis Allen (1993): The New York police today call the most vagrant of the male homeless skels. William Safire informs us that "it is a shortening of skellum meaning a rascal or thief, akin to a skelder, 'to beg on the streets,' first us ed in print by Ben Johnson in 1599, just after the playwright got out of jail for killing a man in a duel; it is possible he picked up the word from cellmate's argot." The word popped up about 1935 in the short form skell, suggesting that skellum/skell ha d underground oral use for centuries. Skell is now in popular speech to denote the homeless that are so visible throughout the city. |
| PAA: Principal Administrative Assistant; also Police Administrative Assistant |
| IAB: Internal Affairs Bureau, the branch of the police that investigates other cops |
| DOA: Traditionally means "dead on arrival"; here it's used to refer to just about any dead person, murdered or otherwise |
| BCI: Bureau of Criminal Information; the place where fingerprints are checked against criminal records. |
| Hump: 1. Your ass; "He's gotta bust my hump over this petty crap?"; 2. A moron; "That stupid hump scratched my car!" |
| Juice: Influence; i.e., veteran cops like Sipowicz and Simone have lots of juice at other precincts when their friends get in trouble |
| Reaching Out: Can mean anything from just contacting someone to trying to convince them to help the cops to seeing if they need help |
| Lawyering Up: A suspect's decision to stop answering questions and ask for legal counsel. |
| The House: Shorthand term for the stationhouse |
| Up/Catching: Baseball metaphors used to describe the system by which cases are assigned; e.g., Simone caught that murder in Chinatown because he was up |
| Riding DA: The Assistant District Attorney assigned to a particular precinct; Sylvia is usually the Riding DA at the 15, but her pregnancy has caused her to cut back on her work, and ADA Cohen has filled in on occasion. |
| Boss: Term for senior officers, from lieutenant (in certain units) to captain, deputy inspector, inspector and commissioner. |
| Bus: ambulance |
| CCRB: Civilian Complaint Review Board |
| Central: Central Dispatch |
| CSU: Crime Scene Unit |
| Dee Wee: Phonetic for DWI (Driving While Intoxicated). |
| DT: Street slang for a Detective. |
| EDP: Emotionally Disturbed Person, the politically-correct way to what was once referred as a "psycho". |
| EMS: Emergency Medical Services, which technicians, often overworked, underpaid and unappreciated sometimes dub "Every Minute Sucks". |
| ESU: Emergency Services Unit; the NYPD SWAT team. |
| FAT: NYPD's Fugitive Apprehension Team. |
| Five-O: Street slang for police (obviously influenced by a now-defunct TV cop show). |
| Flying; to fly: Leaving the confines of one's usual precinct in order to fill in for a shortage of manpower in another precinct or location. |
| Go down, to: Getting arrested. |
| Good people: All-purpose NYPD compliment meaning 'kosher', nice, reliable, etc., irrespective of race, religion or sexual orientation. |
| Gun run: Search for a weapon reported sighted in the hands of a "perp". |
| Hit: Tactical assault on a criminal location. |
| Job: Service in the NYPD, as in "I've been on the job five years." |
| Lou, Loo, Lieu: Affectionate slang for 'lieutenant' |
| MOS: Member of the Service (police officer); used on the radio. |
| Mope: Unauthorized term for "perp". |
| Mutt: Unauthorized term for "perp". |
| OC: Organized Crime |
| One PP: One Police Plaza, NYPD Headquarters in downtown Manhattan. |
| Open carrier: Police officer or vehicle with an open radio. - |
| Package: Escorted prisoner or VIP. |
| Paying the rent: For police officers, the handing out of a certain number of traffic summonses and moving violations. |
| Perp: Perpetrator, criminal |
| Puzzle Palace: Police Officer's term for One Police Plaza. |
| Rabbi: An individual's guide and guardian angel in the department. |
| Rat squad: Officers and detectives assigned to Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB). |
| Red Menace: Unofficial term for members of the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), also known as "Rubbermen", a term of affection and respect for those members. |
| Rip: Loss in pay due to a disciplinary infraction, such as unauthorized moonlighting. |
| RMP: Radio Mobile Patrol, the NYPD blue and white 'sector' car |
| Sector: Subdivision within a precinct, which covers several blocks. A sector car is assigned to patrol the area (see RMP above). |
| SNAG: Special Narcotics and Guns Unit. |
| SNEU: Special Narcotics Enforcement Unit. |
| SOD: Special Operations Division. |
| Squad: Short for 'detective squad', attached to the specific precinct. |
| TARU: Technical and Research Unit |
| Tunnel Rats: NYPD Transit Bureau (the subway cops). |
| White Shirts: Term for lieutenants and above, who wear white uniform shirts. |