KGPL:
Los Angeles Police Department |
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Routine Calls |
Policemen answering the Complaint Board telephones would complete the proper form or "ticket." Routine calls and messages were recorded on a "392," a Central Complaint Board Report. It was then passed to a civilian "index clerk" who would determine the patrol district number for the location. He kept a running worksheet of all radio cars' status, and would assign either the district car or the nearest available unit, and write the "Squad Car No." in the space provided. He would pass the ticket to the radio dispatcher for broadcast by both him and the dispatcher at the Elysian Park transmitter site. After that it would go to the "disposition clerk" who held it until the assigned unit phoned in with the final disposition of the call. The 392 form gradually evolved into the 1970's "Whites" - Radiophone Message logs. |
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L.A.P.D. "Form 391" - the Emergency Report, was used both at Communications Division and in the field by the "Radio police" as they were sometimes called at the time. Its check-off and fill-in format made it a quick tool for recording all pertinent information...by the Complaint Board officer receiving the telephone call, by the dispatchers for a consistent broadcasting format, and by the patrol car officers who could enter descriptions from the radio on the form in a regular, predictable order. Patrolmen often used their copy of the "391" as the basis for their written crime reports. It was quite obviously a close predecessor to the blue "Emergency Message Logs" of forty years later! |
LAPD Form
391 (1936) |
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