Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-11-21
POLICE ALARM.

4 Mach Needed Systen,---E and
the Promotion ot ths Efficiency of TIC
Police Department.
The Eastern metropolitan cities where
patrol wagons are used, employ in con-
nection the electric police alarm system.
Minneapolis now has q patrol wagon. and
the need OF the electric alarm becomes
daily more apparent. It Will be remeln-
bered that several months since the mayor
suggested to the city council that the cleo
trio alarm be adopted in this city.
The members of the council had previ-
ously been given an opportunity to wit
ness the operations of the alarm, one of
the boxes having been placed in the may
or's Office and another i'll the Office of the
city clerk for experimental purposes. Al
though the members acknowledged the eff
cheney of its operations, when the matter
was brought up for action in the council,
it was referred to the COM
mittee on police and there it died natu-
raj death. By the use of the electric
alarm the fire alarm and the telephone
would all be practically done away with,
as it embraces and covers the three feat
ures, it being complete telephone, tele-
graph AID register. Private houses and
business Offices may Use it. In many re-
spects it is much superior to the telephone
or the fire alarm. Either the register or
telegraph system will convey
q message without resorting to
tic use of tie telephone. 80 IL case it
should be necessary that i,ight Waterman
in any Office in which an alarm box was
stationed to call for police aid on account
Of burglars, all he would have to do would
be to quietly step to the alarm box, set the
hand on the dial so that it would point to
the burglar alarm and then pull back the
lever, when instantly the message comes
into the police station telling the officer in
charge that burglars are in q certain place,
and long before telephone connection
could have been made the patrol
wagon with a posse of police would be on
its way to capture the burglars and no
noise made tc brighten Or appriee the
burglars. In the case Of fire the pointer
on the dial would Sc turned TO the space
indicating fire and then the message
would be recorded il the fire department
quarters. Then should the chief wish to
know the extent or magnitude OF the fire
he calls up the box from whence the alarm
comes and in an instant ne has an answer
by telephone,and then knows what portion
Of the department should respond.
Now the police when they want to
call the patrol wagon to any
part Of the city, are Obliged to walk, if in
the night, TO the nearest hose house, and if
in the day to the nearest business house
that has telephone. Then he is invariably
delayed by slow connections until in many
cases the patrol wagon WOuld be almost
useless. lin the suburbs, when a policeman
makes an arrest, he usually cannot get a
telephone to call for the patrol wagon
without coming down town ana abandon
ing his beat, giving opportunities to burg
lars and foot pads to get
in their work. Again rather
than desert their beats for consid-
cradle length of time the police send
drunken men home where they often abuse
and e;ldanger the lives of their families,
when, if the policeman could call for the
patrol wagon he wculd have bsen arrested
and taken care of.