Police ‘call box’ plays old beat stories
Roy Fleming was a rookie patrol officer in 1966, just as Saskatoon police began phasing out its “call boxes,” the communication system that connected beat cops to headquarters.
Fifty years later, Fleming watched the city and its police service unveil a commemorative call box Friday afternoon at the corner of Third Avenue and 22nd Street. While the real call boxes were a lifeline for beat cops, the new one plays short, dramatized stories of downtown police patrols from different eras.
“If you had an arrest, you had to quickly figure out how to get it back to the station,” said Fleming, a retired inspector with 30 years of service.
“Either you had to walk your arrest down to the nearest call box — if they didn’t want to, that created a problem — to call it in, or you had to find some business with a phone that could call in for you.”
Before portable radios kept officers in constant contact with each other, those on patrol used call boxes to check in throughout their shifts, collect messages from police headquarters and report crimes in progress and other incidents. Firefighters also used the call boxes, of which 92 were in operation across the city by 1930, said city archivist Jeff O’Brien.
“It was the only means of communication. If the offi needed help, then this was the only way to call in,” O’Brien said, noting the last one was taken out of service in 1970 as radio cars and portable radios became the standard.
The radios made communication easier, but had at least one big drawback, Fleming said.
“Those things were heavy. Running with them was like having a bag of sand hanging from your hip, bouncing up and down.”
The commemorative call box is a replica featuring an authentic exterior and modified interior. Passersby can open the box, pick up the receiver and hear the different vignettes.
Deputy police chief Bernie Pannell said the installation represents the constantly changing technology used by officers.
“We walked the beat in 1975 with seven portable radios ... we next got portable radios for everybody, and now we’re into the cellphones and in-car cameras and GPS on all the portable radios. That has all allowed for more accountability for our members,” Pannell told reporters.
“Everybody has a camera on them nowadays, so it makes our officers a little more accountable and makes the bad guys more accountable, because there are an awful lot of cameras watching everybody in the city.”
A commemorative call box is also installed at police headquarters. The box plays audio of interviews with former officers who patrolled the streets when the boxes were in use.
“WE WALKED THE BEAT IN 1975 WITH SEVEN PORTABLE RADIOS ...” BERNIE PANNELL