A three-letter system the police inherited from radio and rebuilt for the street
IMPORTANT: this is NOT the international ham-radio/aviation Q-code, and it is NOT the same as the US police "10-code" system (10-4, 10-20, and so on, see this site's separate Ten-Codes tool for that). This is the Q-code system actually used by Brazil's Polícia Militar (military police), Corpo de Bombeiros Militar (military fire department) and private security/vigilância services. It shares a historical root with the international Q-code created for wireless telegraphy in 1912 (later formalized in Appendix 13 of the ITU Radio Regulations), but decades of real operational use pulled it in a different direction: some letters kept close to the original sense (QRM for interference, QTH for location), while others were entirely repurposed or invented for policing needs, QSJ became "money", QSD became "driver", QSV became "patrol car", and QTO became, quite plainly, "restroom." None of those four have any equivalent at all in the international amateur-radio Q-code. This table documents the system as it is actually used, based on training material from Polícia Militar units in more than one Brazilian state plus security/vigilância references, not the generic ham-radio list.
How to use it
Search, filter, and see whether a code has an international equivalent at all
Search by code (e.g. QAP) or by any word in the meaning (e.g. "patrol car" or "money").
Use the category filters to narrow the list to operating procedure, vehicles/logistics, identification, message traffic, signal quality, time/schedule, or urgency.
Select a row to see the police/security meaning highlighted, and, when one genuinely exists, the international sense the police repurposed, shown side by side.
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These references help contextualize formulas, standards, APIs and limitations used on this page. They do not replace professional validation when a result has legal, financial, medical or operational impact.
Not exactly. Both share the same historical root (the Q-code adopted in 1912 and later formalized in Appendix 13 of the ITU Radio Regulations), but they diverged: amateur radio kept almost all of the original technical sense, while Brazilian public safety created its own meanings for many codes, QSJ (money), QSD (driver), QSV (patrol car) and QTO (restroom) simply do not exist in the amateur-radio Q-code at all. This tool specifically documents the version used by Brazilian police, firefighters and security services, not the international amateur-radio/aviation Q-code.