I'm not looking for 'kiss my ass' answers. I'm just watching a movie and trying to find out and memorize new phrases. I've come across the abbreviation 'KMA' when the policeman informed the dispatcher that a couple of cops had died. He said: 'Two policemen ... KMA'(and nothing else). I couldn't find the meaning of this abbreviation while was surfing the net.
5 Answers
For many years the base communications call sign for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department dispatch was KMA 628, while the mobile call sign was KA 4306. FCC regulations required that we identify ourselves, so every hour we had to "FCC". A base station dispatcher, known as an RTO (Radio Telephone Operator) or Sheriff's Dispatcher (SD) or, at last incarnation, Public Response Dispatcher (PRD) would go out over the air and ask for any unit or, sometimes, a specific unit, to FCC. The exchange went basically as follows: "Any unit FCC". The field unit would give their call sign and say, "KA 4306". The dispatcher would usually respond, "10-4 Thank you. KMA 628" and then give the time. The "KMA" prefix was a law enforcement designation and the numbers distinguished the agency. For example, LAPD was KMA 367 and LASD was KMA 628.
Since it was a policeman...
"KMA" was the FCC call sign prefix for police frequencies in Los Angeles.
You may want to refer to KMA 367 "An Unofficial History of the Los Angeles Police Department's Communications Division".
Likewise, other departments had other call signs (e.g. "KMG" was for the fire department).
In the context that was given, I don't think they meant KMA - end transmission. Jakoby was describing the two Officers down. I believe he meant to say KIA - killed in action.
Throughout the rest of the film they reference those Officers as killed, so I believe KIA is what they meant to transmit, but perhaps in the writing misused the acronym.
Just as modern law enforcement uses EOW (end of watch) to indicate that they are off duty, it also is used to reference when an officer is deceased and dispatch will announce their final EOW. In the film mentioned, I think they use KMA to reference the "last transmission" of those officers, as a quiet way of announcing their deaths. In some agencies, who still use 10 codes, 10-7 means "out of service," and recently, I saw a video where the officer let dispatch know the suspect was "10-7" after a shootout that ended with the suspect's death.
I’m late to the party, but as others pointed out, KMA was part of the LAPD’s FCC-issued station call sign for their dispatch. Up until a few decades ago, the FCC required that law enforcement communications centers ended their transmissions with their call sign (in addition to an hourly station identification). Truncating a call sign is not new, and while the call sign is given at the end of a radio conversation as a matter of practice, it doesn’t mean “keep me advised” nor is it synonymous with “copy” or “roger” in this context.