Vanity License Plates

We see them everywhere.  We often enjoy riding along and trying to decipher the plates as the cars pass by.  There are some we see regularly in our commute to and from work that still do not make sense.

As a child, I used to watch Adam-12.  I remember how one of the officers would call out license plate numbers for the dispatcher to run down.  The officer would state ILX-555 as "Indigo" "Lima" "X-ray" for the letters to ensure clarity and then cite the numbers.

In today's world, I wonder how the officer would convey "Teach LV" which I saw over the weekend or "MRPH2U" (does this translate into "Murphy to you" or "Mr. PH to you?") which I see in our parking deck from time to time.

And, how about plates that display numbers but from different organizations?  This morning, I saw the number "3" from an organization I could not quite see.  It was not a government official's car or plate.    Can the same number "3" be issued by multiple organizations?  How does a policeman track those down when in hot pursuit?