Police box A police box — or police public call box — was a telephone kiosk that could be used by the police to call into a station ( TV : " Logopolis " ) or by members of the public wishing to get help from the police . ( TV : " Bell of Doom " ) Unlike telephone booth s , a police box phone was on the outside of the structure , in a little compartment that had an exterior , instructional label . ( TV : " The Empty Child " ) According to Tegan Jovanka , who once read aloud the instructions on a TARDIS disguised as a police box in the Borough of Barnet , the instructions were : Function and physical characteristics . Police boxes were about the size of a large cupboard , and could provide shelter to those police officers who had the key . Inside were kept a writing desk and stool , as well as materials relevant to the conduct of police business — such as clipboards , writing utensils and forms . As the Ninth Doctor once pointed out , there was enough space in a typical police box to temporarily house a prisoner . He indicated that a typical usage was for a policeman to pop an arrested individual into the police box and lock the doors until transport to a station could be arranged . ( TV : " Boom Town " ) Real life incidents and appearances . In the time before telephones and modern policing , a culture of art and prophecy developed around " the blue box " , appearing in religious stained glass windows , ( TV : " The End of Time " ) paintings , ( TV : " The Pandorica Opens " ) and ancient prophecy . ( TV : " The Fires of Pompeii " ) This lead to the inspiration of the design of the police box as a place one could find help . ( COMIC : " Prisoners of Time " , " Hunters of the Burning Stone " ) On 11 June 1925 , a police officer at first mistook the Fifth Doctor ' s TARDIS for a real police box until invited inside by him . ( TV : " Black Orchid " ) The Eleventh Doctor mistook a real police box for the TARDIS on Christmas Eve 1938 . ( TV : " The Doctor , the Widow and the Wardrobe " ) In Foxgrove on 18 August 1951 , Sarah Jane and Luke stumbled upon a police box . They thought that the Doctor had arrived to help them , but realised it was an ordinary police box when PC Ferguson popped his head out . ( TV : " The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith " ) In Wales in 1959 , American secret agents Jerome Weismuller and Hawk used a police box to contact their superiors at the Pentagon . ( TV : " Delta and the Bannermen " ) An actual police box sat across the street from where the Seventh Doctor had landed the TARDIS in 1963 . ( TV : " Remembrance of the Daleks " ) Returned to London in 1965 , Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright amused themselves after sighting a real police box . ( TV : " The Chase " ) During a trip to London in 1966 , the Ninth Doctor appreciated the fact that it was one of the rare occasions the TARDIS ' police box exterior was " any cop as a disguise " . Rose Tyler noticed the TARDIS had landed next to a genuine police box and asked if they normally came in pairs . ( COMIC : " The Love Invasion " ) The Doctor ' s TARDIS materialised around the Barnet Bypass police box , whereupon Tegan Jovanka entered the Doctor ' s TARDIS shortly thereafter , mistaking it for the genuine police box . Later , the TARDIS dematerialised , leaving the nearby policemen with the normal police box . ( TV : " Logopolis " ) The Barnet Bypass police box was mistaken for the Doctor ' s TARDIS by Prince Genei , who immediately abandoned his plans to conquer Earth . Shortly afterwards , the police box — the last of its kind in England — was taken away , as it was considered useless . ( PROSE : " Useless Things " ) In 2006 , Bridget Sinclair showed LINDA slides of the Doctor ' s TARDIS , which she described as looking like " a faux police box " . In fact , she only had photos of various real police boxes . ( TV : " Love & Monsters " ) Attempting to feign ignorance as regards the TARDIS , DI Patricia Menzies told the Sixth Doctor in 2010 that she thought that they only had police boxes in Scotland . ( AUDIO : " The Crimes of Thomas Brewster " ) Polly Wright told Thomas Brewster that she hoped that the Doctor had returned for her every time that she saw a police box . ( AUDIO : " The Three Companions " ) When Alexei found the TARDIS on London ' s South Bank , Mahler mentioned an embarrassment on Earl ' s Court , implying that they ' d earlier attempted to raid the actual police box stationed there . ( TV : " The Bells of Saint John " ) Disguises . The Doctor ' s TARDIS . On multiple occasions , ships , mainly TARDIS es , had taken the shape of actual police boxes . DI Billy Shipton was familiar enough with real police boxes to recognise the TARDIS as a counterfeit in 2008 . ( TV : " Blink " ) Upon de - cloaking the TARDIS in the Oval Office in 1969 , the Eleventh Doctor claimed that he and his companions were from Scotland Yard . ( TV : " The Impossible Astronaut " ) Early in the First Doctor ' s travels , the TARDIS assumed the exterior shape of a police box during a stopover in 1963 London . Due to a malfunction in its chameleon circuit , the TARDIS became locked into that shape . ( TV : " The Cave of Skulls " , " Boom Town " , " Utopia " ) The Eleventh Doctor had in fact purposefully destroyed the chameleon circuit , to inspire the look of the police boxes by spreading it through human history and culture . ( COMIC : " Hunters of the Burning Stone " ) Dodo Chaplet entered the TARDIS believing it to be a police box and wanting to make an emergency call about a road accident . ( TV : " The Massacre of St Bartholomew ' s Eve " ) On a visit to London in July 1966 , the Doctor solved the potential problem of local policemen mistaking the TARDIS for a genuine police box and trying to use it , by hanging an " OUT OF ORDER " sign on its doors . However , Dodo did point out to him that not even the police would be able to open the door . ( TV : " The War Machines " ) Bill theorised that the Doctor deliberately kept the TARDIS ' disguised as a police box due to the implications behind the " Advice and Assistance Obtainable Immediately " line on its door . ( TV : " Smile " ) Other ships . On 28 February 1981 , as part of a complex plot , materialised his TARDIS around a real police box on the Barnet Bypass . The Doctor ' s TARDIS , still disguised as a police box , materialised around the Master ' s TARDIS , also disguised as a police box , creating a dimensional anomaly and a trap for the Doctor . ( TV : " Logopolis " ) The Doctor manipulated the chameleon circuit of the Monk ' s TARDIS to make it assume several shapes , including that of a police box . ( TV : " The Daleks ' Master Plan " ) When the Doctor once more met the Monk , he had voluntarily configured his TARDIS into the shape of a police box . ( COMIC : " 4 - Dimensional Vistas " )