Communications Division - 1949

While I'm figuring out where and how to put these pics on my Comm Div website, here they are for you to look at.

For those of you who never worked the old "horseshoe" at Parker Center, this all probably looks incredibly ancient. For those of us who did work there - and got the dispatching done every bit as well as you folks do today - these photos from the LAPD's north wing of City Hall should look pretty familiar. The technology may change, but all in all, the job remains exactly the same.

The Complaint Board. Apparently not even the officers had to work in uniform. They answered calls on the MADISON 5-211 line as well as the "1-1-6" citywide emergency phone number ("When a fix, dial 1-1-6" was drilled into L.A. City school-kids, just as "Call 9-1-1" is today).

You can see the RTOs in the mike room behind the glass at the right rear.

Back then there were two "phones" positions, just 6 RTO positions for all "metropolitan area" patrol and traffic divisions, one RTO for West L.A./Venice, and - get this - one RTO who handled Harbor Division and the Valley! (On top of that, she had to broadcast the tongue-twisting callsigns "KQJP" and "KQJO.")





The story I had heard over the years was that when the new Police Administration Building opened in 1954/55, they actually carried the status boards and other equipment from City Hall around the block and installed it in the larger "horseshoe" in Room 151.
Looking at this 1949 picture of the "frequency 4" operator's position, would you not agree?

And how is she filing? By "10s" or by "missing numbers?"

Not "mike room" pics, but here they are anyway...

Communications Div Teletype Section

(That guy in the suit who keeps showing up in all the pictures is long-time Comm Div OIC, Lt. William Durham)

And on the other end of the radio...

Some things do change a little: the hotsheet on their sun-visor has been replaced by an MDT. Beginning with the Academy Class of 2-10-1958 they got rid of those goofy "grab-a-hold-and-punch-me-out" shoulder straps that held up their Sam Browne belts. But they still grab the radio and call the RTO when push comes to shove.


Motorcops are still a breed of their own...

BCMCs still pretty much do it their way, but the deadly soft hats have long since been replaced by helmets... and the microphones have been put inside them. This motor sergeant (who IS that guy? ) is showing off one of the first two-way motorcycle radios. Before 1949 the "Mary units" could only listen but not transmit. (Hmmm, was that part really progress??)