This police phonetic alphabet translator spells any word, name or plate in the Adam-Boy-Charles style heard on US police radio, or in the NATO Alfa-Bravo-Charlie version, and turns spoken code words back into letters. It suits dispatch trainees, writers checking a scene, scanner listeners and anyone who has to spell a name clearly over a bad phone line.
Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded. Agencies sometimes use local variants; Phonetic to text also reads Nancy, Peter, Alpha, Juliet, Whisky and Niner.
How the Police Phonetic Alphabet Translator Works
Letters such as B, D, P and V sound alike on a crackly radio, so officers and dispatchers say a whole word for each one. US agencies have long used the APCO phonetic alphabet, published by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, which starts Adam, Boy, Charles, David. Military, aviation and many newer public-safety systems use the NATO list instead. The tool looks up each character in a fixed table and joins the words; in reverse, it matches each code word back to its letter.
Rule: for each letter A to Z, output the word at that position in the chosen list (A = Adam or Alfa, B = Boy or Bravo, and so on); digits 0 to 9 become Zero to Nine; accents are removed first, so É becomes Edward; other symbols are skipped and counted. Words are separated by a slash. Decoding reads APCO and NATO words, case-insensitive, and shows an unknown word as ?.
- Text to phonetic / Phonetic to text — the direction of the translation.
- Alphabet — Police / APCO, NATO / ICAO, or both side by side, one letter per line.
- Text to spell — a name, plate, call sign or case number; line breaks are kept.
- Code words to decode — words separated by spaces, with / between spelled words.
- Characters, Words, Skipped — how many characters were translated and what was left out.
Example Scenarios
| Input | Setting | Output |
|---|---|---|
| CAR 52 | Police / APCO | Charles Adam Robert / Five Two |
| LAPD | Police / APCO | Lincoln Adam Paul David |
| 7XYZ219 | Police / APCO | Seven X-ray Young Zebra Two One Nine |
| Smith | NATO / ICAO | Sierra Mike India Tango Hotel |
| Boy Ocean Boy | Phonetic to text | BOB |
| Kilo Edward Nora / Ida Victor | Phonetic to text (mixed) | KEN IV |
Police Radio Alphabet Tips
The LAPD phonetic alphabet is the version most people know from television: the patrol show Adam-12 took its name from an LAPD call sign. The same Adam Boy Charles alphabet is still heard on many US scanners, though plenty of agencies have moved to the NATO words, so check what your own dispatch centre uses before a shift.
- Say numbers digit by digit, which is also how the police phonetic alphabet translator spells them. A plate ending 219 is Two One Nine, not two hundred nineteen.
- Do not mix alphabets in one message. Pick APCO or NATO and stay with it so the listener is never guessing.
- Use the police phonetic alphabet translator to rehearse the names you read often, such as street names in your district.
- Local variants exist; some departments say Nancy instead of Nora or Peter instead of Paul. The decoder accepts both.
- Pause briefly between letters and say a slash, or break, between words when spelling a full address.
For the history of the list and its regional versions, see Wikipedia’s article on the APCO radiotelephony spelling alphabet.
Police Phonetic Alphabet Translator FAQ
What is the police phonetic alphabet?
It is the APCO list many US law enforcement agencies use on the radio: Adam, Boy, Charles, David, Edward, Frank, George, Henry, Ida, John, King, Lincoln, Mary, Nora, Ocean, Paul, Queen, Robert, Sam, Tom, Union, Victor, William, X-ray, Young and Zebra. It keeps similar-sounding letters clear.How do I translate police code words to English?
Switch the tool to Phonetic to text and type the words you heard, separated by spaces, with a slash between separate words. Adam Boy Charles becomes ABC. Words the police phonetic alphabet translator does not recognise appear as a question mark, so you can see exactly which part to check again.What is the difference between the APCO and NATO phonetic alphabets?
They cover the same 26 letters with different words. APCO uses names and everyday words such as Adam, Boy and Charles, while NATO uses Alfa, Bravo and Charlie. Only Victor and X-ray are the same in both. Aviation, the military and many emergency services worldwide use the NATO version.Is there a printable police phonetic alphabet PDF?
This page offers a plain chart instead: press Download chart to save a text file listing every letter with its APCO and NATO word, plus the digits. Open it in any editor and print it, or save it as a PDF from your printer dialog for a desk or vehicle reference card.Do all police departments use the same alphabet?
No. Many US agencies still use the APCO words, some have switched to NATO to match neighbouring services, and some keep local variants such as Nancy for N. Your dispatch centre’s procedures are the final word, so use this chart for practice rather than as an official standard.Is this phonetic alphabet translator free to use online?
Yes. It is free, needs no sign-up and runs entirely in your browser, so names, plates and case numbers you type are never uploaded. It works offline once the page has loaded, and the Copy button puts the spelled-out result on your clipboard for reports or training notes.Related Tools
If you enjoy codes, try the Roman numeral converter or the binary to decimal converter. Before you read a password aloud with the police phonetic alphabet translator, test it with the password strength calculator.