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Greatest Enemy —
call, but a special number indicates which car it is intended for. The bare facts are given, for instance:
"Car 27 — car 27. Man holding up storekeeper at 185 X Avenue."
The message is again repeated and a moment later is re-broadcast from the remote control station at Elysian Park. In case no report has been phoned in within a reasonable period of time, the message is again put on the air but directed to a car in an adjacent district.
• However, it is rare that a car fails to get a message. Although there are numerous dead spots in the city, and heavy traffic, leaky transformers and vibrating machines cause a certain amount of
interference, the double check system of broadcasting allows the driver time to pull into a secluded spot.
The receivers, Spartons, are set at the proper wave length and locked. There is but a single control; that is volume. The set proper is bolted tightly under the floor boards, the control dial and lock is on the steering column and the speaker is under the dash.
In the early days of police broadcasting, long wave channels were used. However, it was discovered that this permitted the public at large to listen in as well as invited greater static and interference. The short wave channels have proved infinitely more practical.
The sets are turned on the moment the car leaves for its cruise. At no time, except under extremely urgent conditions, do both officers leave a car at once. In cases of bank robberies, riots and serious calls, the car is marked out of duty by the dispatchers and a car in a district close by covers.
• In traffic cases, drunken driving, stolen automobiles, accidents and so forth, police radio has proved invaluable. The close network of fast patrol cars covering Los An
Left — Captain Hawtrey of the L. A. Police
geles makes it almost impossible for a criminal to make a get-away if he is reported during the actual time of his crime.
On the wall of the broadcasting room at city hall is a series of dozens of lights. The eye of one phone operator is constantly glued to these tiny bulbs. They are connected with burglar alarm systems in banks and their flash is the signal for a general alarm. Speeding police cars, their blood-curdling sirens shrieking, hurdle over the pavements from a half dozen districts. They form a net around the bank, making it virtually impossible for the bandits to escape.
Even if police radio were used in the checking of petty crime alone, the expense would be more than justified. One car with its two officers can do the work of a dozen patrolmen on foot.
j. C. Rosso, radio supervisor of the Los Angeles Police Department, is the man largely responsible for the installation of the system. He has been interested in short wave and DX work for years.
Tulare, the small mid-California city, was the first in the west to install police radio. Pasadena soon followed.
Some day if you want a real thrill, and live in or near Los Angeles, fix your set to tune in at 1712 kilocycles. Then you get first hand information of what a police radio car is getting.
Police Radio Control Room J. G. Rosso, Police Radio Supervisor
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