The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-09-28
PUSH BUTTONS NOW
TO CALL POLICEMAN
Commissioner Woods Is Putting
System Into Effect In the
Odd Precinct.
SMALL BOY THE ONLY FEAR

People who live or DO business in the
Twenty-thlrd police precinct. bounded nv
Forty-second street. Fourth avenue.
Twenty-seventh street and Seventh ave-
nue.. will receive coon Il letter from Police
Commissioners Woods telling them OF a
new way 10 get a policeman quickly and
or new patrol system which will he
Introduced in that precinct and extended
probably all over Manhattan.
The green flashlights affixed TO iron
posts are the means of operating the
system. They are distributed about the
precinct and have been already in par
tlal operation for some time. being
flashed from tho West Thirtieth street
station when the desk lieutenant wanted
TO call a man to the telephone attached.
Now, however. every citizen by pressing
push button attached TO the telephone
box can start the lights flashing. They
will be visible by day well as by
night.
Tho Advantages OF the old fixed post
system are thus ootaiaed. while the patrol
man can patrol instead OF standing still
Patro!men answer in from one 10 three
minutes. and can be reached from the
I station house much quicker than by the
old expedieut OF ringing a bell on the box
which could be heard only twenty feet.
There are at least tao possible draw
backs. however, which Commissioner
Woods and Chief Inspector Schmittberger
are considering. win the ubiquitous
small boy keep pa;rolmen running TO
answer the grcea beacors. and will crooks
be able to use them I'm pulling off a
job? As any one caught sending in a
/ false alarm" will he charged with dis
NF.f. :.
CHIEF makers will let them alone.
The crook question is different. for
, while one flashed the lights and took the
/ patroman to one end OF his beat an
! accomplice might enter house or hold
| up a pedestrian. At any rate, Com
missioner Woods thinks the lo2 patrol
! men OF tho precinct can work the sys-
TEN all right.
The green Light system was evolved
after other systems had been tried In
two other precincts, where they are stu
operated. In the Twenty-sixth precinct.
whore ~ men patrol most OF the white
/ light district. Il man patrols each block
oil which there Is a sigma box He is
/ within hearing OF the bell rung from
I the West Forty-seventh street station
/ Vet he patrols a block. which shortens
the adjacent post that much.
The second variation IL in forcce in the
I Twenty-uinth precinct. called the "dia-
mona DaCk precinct DrCdus" ~ ALS hdHN
/ wealthy residents. Here alone the fixed
post survives. for man Is on duty al
each Of eight boxes. subject 20 instant cal
from the Fast Fifty-frst street station
and accessible to citizens. THIS precinct
has li2 men. The green lights vii n'
installed soon IN botn OF these pre-
cincts ~ they prove successful In thu
Tws ntN-thrd
The Seventy-fourth precinct Is patrolleC
now by five motorcycle men and % bcy
Gle men and here too is variation o.
the nxed post. Four booths have beer
put up where a bicycle man Is always
ready to answer telephone calls. Som'
twenty-five citizens have been given key!
10 pa,rol boxes from which TO call eithe
a booth or tho kingsbridge station. an'
letters explaining the system and en-
closing n map Of the precinct have beef
sent to all residents
The Seventy-ninth precinct with IN
station at 22ath street and White Plain
. avenue j. patrolled on the sam" pan saw
that all patrolling is done by bicycle men
! commissioner Woods hopes soon Il
have at least one automobile attache'
+, each outlying precinct. The plan !,
. use in the Seventy-fourJh and Seventy
, ninth precincts viii be extended next &
. the Eighty-ninth, at New Dorp, Statei
r Island
TIL. effect Of all these plans has bee
practically to relegate the hxed pos
, system to the shelf On,y in the Twenty
ninth precinct does II survive In mod
4 nsd form, but Commissioner Woods an
! rhIef inspector Schmittberser think IN
new systems have all It's advantages
while releasing 500 men for patrol dut
4 where they are needed.