In the San Diego County Sheriff's Phone Dispatcher Training Manual, 1146 means "Report of Death." Its application is a caller reporting a possibly deceased person. The word "possibly" matters: this event label does not confirm that someone has died.
People search for this as 11-46, 1146, 11 46 or 11/46. The source itself prints 1146 on page 66, PDF page 67, revised March 27, 2025. This page explains that specific entry, not a universal police-radio meaning.
What a report of death means in this manual
The entry classifies information supplied by a caller. It does not name the cause of death, identify a criminal offense or establish the result of a medical assessment. A reader should not turn the caller's possible-death report into a confirmed outcome.
| Agency or list | What 11-46 means | Source |
|---|---|---|
| San Diego County Sheriff's Office (CA) | Report of deathPrinted as event code 1146 on page 66 (PDF page 67), revised March 27, 2025. A caller reports someone possibly deceased; this is not confirmation of a death. | San Diego Sheriff phone-dispatch manual, pp. 66-67 |
In the manual's classification section, an event type describes the nature of the incident. That is the setting for 1146: a dispatch record category attached to a call for service. It is different from a legal section number and from a response designation such as Code 3.
1146 compared with 1144 and 1145
The adjacent entries answer different questions. 1144 is a medical examiner's case where a field unit or outside public safety agency has confirmed that a person is deceased. 1145 covers a threat, attempt or actual suicide. 1146 records a caller's report of a possible death.
The same table has 118 for a person who appears unconscious or unresponsive when the cause is unknown, and 1147 for a conscious person showing injury of unknown cause. These distinctions explain why a short reference to a person being down, injured or possibly deceased should not be treated as the same statement.
The manual does not say that every 1146 event automatically becomes 1144. The entries define different applications; the final handling of a real call cannot be reconstructed from this table alone. For the side-by-side labels, use the San Diego Sheriff dispatch-code guide.
The blue-highlighted restriction
1144 is blue-marked; 1146 is not. The manual explains that only radio dispatchers may use blue-marked codes as event types, while phone dispatchers may use them in call documentation. This identifies who may select an event type. It does not mean phone dispatchers are forbidden to write or mention the code.
Keeping that rule beside the definition avoids a misleading summary such as "1144 and 1146 both mean dead person." One concerns a confirmed case and carries the event-entry restriction; the other concerns the caller's possible-death report.
A plain-English example
Imagine a caller reporting that a person may have died. In the manual's terms, that is the kind of information described by 1146. A reader seeing only that event label still does not know what the responding agency later established. This is an illustration of the definition, not an actual dispatch transcript or advice on classifying a call.
For scanner or public-record research, note the agency and date and read any available accompanying description. Avoid presenting a preliminary event description as a final determination, particularly when discussing an identifiable person.
Why another list may not show 11-46
Agency code sets overlap only partly. A number missing from one list can still appear in another agency's event table. Conversely, finding 1146 in this Sheriff manual does not establish that CHP, San Diego Police Department or another county uses it the same way.
The 11-code hub keeps the shared radio-list comparison separate from this Sheriff material. The scanner guide explains other types of shorthand, and the accuracy policy describes the limits of these document-based explanations.
FAQ
Does 11-46 mean a confirmed death?
Not in the cited Sheriff entry. 1146 is a caller report of a possibly deceased person. Confirmation by a field unit or outside public safety agency belongs to the separate 1144 application.
Is 1146 a Penal Code section here?
No. Here it is a Sheriff dispatch event label. This manual entry is not a legal definition or a criminal charge.
Is 1146 the same as 11-46?
1146 is the spelling printed in the source. The hyphenated form is used for the search topic; neither spelling proves another department has the same definition.
Is this the San Diego Police Department code?
The source is the San Diego County Sheriff's Office manual, not the city Police Department's manual. Do not transfer its meaning to another agency without checking that agency's material.
How current is the source?
The cited page is marked revised March 27, 2025. The complete supplied PDF was reviewed on November 6, 2026; that review does not establish whether the agency has issued later internal changes.
Sources
- Phone Dispatcher Training Manual, Other Codes and Application, printed pages 66-67 (PDF pages 67-68); classification context on printed pages 15-17, San Diego County Sheriff's Office, Communications Center. Updated March 27, 2025 (printed pages 66-67). Official Checked November 2026