Are these codes universal or are these just something that is made up
for tv, for example, "centeral we have 1014 in progress at 123 main
street".  Is there are listing that translates what these "codes"
mean?

Great question! I had wondered the same thing. A friend whose son is a
police officer pointed me toward this site, which provides a lengthy
list of commonly-used police codes:

Police Codes and Abbreviations
http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/polcodes.htm

Two more good reference sources:

The Almighty Guru: APCO 10 Codes & Extended APCO
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Pointless/PoliceScanCodes.html

Cobra Information Site: Police Radio Codes
http://www.cobras.org/police.htm

Local police departments typically will have their own variations.

Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: apco police codes
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=apco+police+codes

I hope this is helpful. If anything is unclear or incomplete, please
request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before
you rate my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

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Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 02 Sep 2004 17:42 PDT

Here's an interesting list of codes as used on several television
shows (mostly cop shows, but "Get Smart" and "Star Trek" are in there,
too!)

TV Acres: Instructional Codes
http://www.tvacres.com/codes_instructional.htm

Cool.  Perfect Answer.  Thanks!