CHICAGO — Shootings are up in Chicago, and so are the tweets.
The city's rise in crime this year has boosted the profiles of many Twitter accounts that report late-night police scanner chatter. Some of the best-known accounts, almost all of them anonymous, have become go-to sources for live news on overnight crime and now have a bigger following than a lot of Chicago's traditional media. Shootings are up 80 percent through the first quarter of 2016 compared to the first three months of last year.
"Trust but verify," is the motto of Spot News, a freelance crime photographer here with nearly 31,000 followers. "People expose themselves to whomever it is that calls 911. That's when my job begins."
RELATED: Chicago's Must-Follow Crime Handles On Twitter
Though detailed, local Twitter's overnight soup of acronyms, police codes, and other lingo can be indecipherable to those tuning in for the first time. Here are some of the most frequent #ChicagoScanner terms, defined by the Chicago Fire Department:
• Zone: 911 dispatchers group police districts into zones, each one getting their own radio frequency police use. Here's the zone map.
• Z6: Zone Six covers the Englewood and Chicago Lawn districts on the city's South Side.
• HBT: Hostage/barricaded/terrorist situation.
• 001, 002, 003, etc.: Police districts in which crimes occur. Here's the police district map.
• EMS: Emergency medical service (ambulance call).
• Hazmat: Hazardous materials that can be triggered by fire.
• Level I, II, III: Severity of hazmat incident. Level III is the largest or most dangerous.
• Still-and-box: A fire that was reported via phone call (still) and fire alarm (box).
• Bonafide: A verified (or "bona fide") crime called in.
• 0110: Police code for first degree murder.
• Loud reports: Gunshots heard.
• 10-1: Officer requires assistance.
• Staging: Area set up at crime scene for media and other spectators.
• First Watch, Second Watch, Third Watch: 911 dispatcher shifts. The first watch runs from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., the second from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the third 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.
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