Line of Duty

Time to brush-up on the cop-shop lingo -
Line of Duty is back

The most exciting drama on TV (ever) returns for season 6 this week, streaming exclusively in North America on BritBox.
​Along with Superintendent Ted Hastings (“As in the battle, ma’am” - what a great line) and our favourite “mates” Steve and Kate, the latest series features the usual acronym overload we’ve come to expect from Line of Duty. So if you can’t tell your UCO from your OCG, now is a good time for a refresher. 

Naturally, the long-awaited new season of Jed Mercurio’s hit drama involves the usual shocking twists, bombshell revelations, dodgy characters, cover-ups and intense interrogation scenes, as Hastings and team once again crack down on police corruption in the hunt for bent coppers. When it aired in the UK earlier this month, the series 6 finale pulled in a record-breaking 12.8 million viewers, which according to the BBC, makes it the most-watched episode of any drama since modern records began.

But if you’re anything like me, you might miss some of Line of Duty’s nail-biting best bits as you struggle to keep up with the AC-12 jargon, abbreviations and code-words. To save you scratching your head and reaching for your phone/Google, here’s a quick recap on the ones you really need to know:

OCG – Organized crime group
SCG – Serious crime group
UCO - Undercover Officer
ARU - Armed Response Unit
ARV - Armed Response Vehicle
CIS - Crime Information System
CPS - Crown Prosecution Service
MIT - Murder Investigation Team
GSW - Gunshot Wound
DIR - Digital Interview Recording
Fahrenheit  – 'shoot to kill' order
Status zero – Radio code, officer needs immediate assistance
Reg 15 – Regulation 15 Notice, police disciplinary notice

Those of us Stateside will be able to stream one episode each week from May 18. 
​BritBox kindly granted me a sneak-peek at the new series, but please don’t ask me if the true identity of “H” is finally revealed. If I told you, I’d probably have to kill you. 
But I can tell you to keep an ear out for some terrific Ted-isms (the “wee donkey” reference is hilarious).

And now that you’ve swotted up on your jargon, I can also spill the beans on this new one from series 6: “CHIS” stands for “covert human intelligence source”, aka informant/grass/snitch. You’re welcome.

While we might complain that sussing out the cop-shop lingo is a tad frustrating, knowing the difference between an ARV and the ARU can actually make us mere civvies feel like we’ve successfully infiltrated the covert world of anti-corruption. 
Let’s be honest - without all those annoying acronyms, Line Of Duty just wouldn’t be quite as brilliant. 

Line of Duty S6 is streaming on BritBox, starting May 18th. 

​While you’re waiting for the new series, here’s my favourite Line Of Duty spoof,
​featuring Lee Mack (from Would I Lie To You?).