5-0 — pronounced “five-oh” — is slang for police.
The origin is unmistakable: Hawaii Five-0, the television series that ran from 1968 to 1980 and was rebooted in 2010. The title referred to Hawaii being the 50th state. The show featured a elite police unit led by Steve McGarrett, famous for the catchphrase “Book ’em, Danno.” The theme music is iconic. The title became a nickname for cops everywhere.
By the 1980s, “5-0” had entered hip-hop. N.W.A. used it. Ice-T used it. It became the default term for police in rap lyrics, replacing “pigs,” “the man,” and “fuzz.” The word carried the right energy: short, punchy, slightly coded. It was not an insult exactly. It was a label. A way to name the presence without showing respect.
The term evolved with context. “5-0” means police. “Five-0” means the same. Sometimes people say “po-po” or “12” or “feds.” But “5-0” remains the most recognizable, the most cinematic. It sounds like a siren. It sounds like a warning.
In the 2010s, the phrase gained new weight. After Ferguson, after Black Lives Matter, after George Floyd, “5-0” was not just a nickname. It was a frame. The term carried history, policy, and violence in two syllables. It was shorthand for a relationship between communities and the state — one that predates television, even if the name comes from it.
Today, “5-0” is universal. It is in music, in film, in casual conversation. It is the cop in the rearview mirror. The patrol car on the corner. The presence that changes behavior without doing anything. Five-oh. You know what it means when you hear it.