shot caller

English

Alternative forms

• shot-caller, shotcaller

Etymology

A deverbal of call the shots.

Noun

shot caller (plural shot callers)

1. (slang) Someone in charge, especially the leader of a street gang.
   • 2009, Samuel H. Pillsbury, How Criminal Law Works: A Conceptual and Practical Guide, page 346:

     Antonio Ramirez, is a shot caller (a leader) of the A Street gang, a powerful criminal organization in the southern part of the state.

2. (US, prison slang) A prison inmate who holds informal authority over other inmates and who masterminds criminal activity.
   • 2000, Christian Parenti, Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis, page 198:

     […] the CDC's campaign to isolate other "shot callers" in its new generation of super maximum security prisons.

   • 2014, Carl Sifakis, The Encyclopedia of American Prisons, page 236:

     A hotbed for fights and race riots has long been California's Pitchess Detention Center, a Los Angeles County prison. These battles are masterminded by tattooed gang leaders called shot callers.

   • 2019, Casey Diaz, Mike Yorkey, The Shot Caller , Emanate Books, →ISBN, page 76:

     People already knew me from the streets, so when the previous shot caller was transferred to a different state prison, a leadership vacuum was created. I was asked to fill it. One of the shot callers' responsibilities was to control the shanks within the prison population—the crude homemade knives used for stabbing another prisoner.

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “shot-caller n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang