DISPATCH POSITION: 1955-1982
RadioTelephone Operator (RTO's) Status Board
Each of the round, rotating "status buttons" had a small unit-number tag on it. There was an identical button on the opposite side of the shaft, for the "dispatcher" (a policeman, who was responsible for assigning a unit to each call). Half of the button was green, the other half black, and the orientation of the button indicated the unit's status. If a unit was "clear" (available for calls) the RTO would turn his button so the green half was on top. If on a call, the green would be on the left; if on Code 7 (lunch) green on the right half; if out of service (at station, not on duty, or otherwise not available for calls), the green was on the bottom - black on top. The ticket corresponding to the unit's status would be in the ticket rack on top, directly above the button. The RTO and the dispatcher could see instantly who was clear, who was on a call and potentially available, and who was on Code 7 and probably not available (there were very few portable radios until the advent of the "ROVER" portable radios in the early 1980's).
Call tickets were slipped down the "in" slot to be broadcast, and requests that required telephone calls (e.g. tow service, ambulance, fire department) or other action were sent through the "out" slot to be handled by a "phone" operator or whoever was appropriate. The time-clock and number stamp cannot be seen in this view. Also out of sight was a spindle for filing all completed tickets in sequential order. The stepped rack at the lower right held completed tickets which couldn't be filed yet because other tickets in the sequence were still active.
Not yet present when this picture was taken
were a computer keyboard on the far left side of the desk-top,
and monitor above and to the left of the ticket rack. Until the
late 1960s, RTOs used earpieces and boom microphones.. They were
replaced by microphone-earphone headsets, which freed up space in
the now equipment-crowded cubicle and allowed hands-free
broadcasting with foot-pedal transmit buttons.
I've located a
picture that depicts the later setup, probably from about 1970:
The Policeman is
Garnet Adams.
Anybody recognize the RTO?
DISPATCH "TICKETS" - 1970s
RADIO MESSAGE LOG - "White" - Routine Call
The boxes across the top are for: Call Back No.; Pos (Complaint Board Position #), Rec By (Operator # who took the phone call); "Phoned To/By/Ack By" when necessary for us to make a phone call re this incident, e.g. tow service, ambulance, more info from caller, etc., who called, what # and whom they spoke to. Rptg Dist: Reporting District of the call (each geographic division has 20-50 "RD's"); Disp Dispatcher (police officer in those days) who assigned the unit; R.T.O.: (Civilian) Radiotelephone Operator who broadcast the call. Unit Dispatched: Unit(s) Dispatched.
The 5, 8 & 14 numbers refer to Harbor, West L.A. and Venice (now "Pacific") Divisions, respectively. Having been annexed to the city in the early part of the 20th century, they have a number of duplicative street names...e.g., there might be a 602 7th Street downtown, another in San Pedro (Harbor Div) and another in Venice. The 5, 8 or 14 would be circled to alert the dispatcher that the call was in one of these "outlying" divisions.
Code 1, 2 or 3: "Code 1" was not a priority level for a call, but was used to get a unit's attention after you had given them a call but they hadn't acknowledged it. Officers sometimes felt that it implied they weren't paying attention to the radio, so many RTO's would first ask, "7A29, did you receive?" or "7A29, come in" and give out the call when they answered. "Code 1" came to be used mostly when the call was relatively urgent and you needed to get somebody going. (But never when he had ticked you off earlier in the shift and you wanted to get him back. Nah, RTOs would never do anything like that.)
Code 2 meant "urgent" call, but no siren or red lights; Code 3 was "emergency," use red lights and siren. These codes were generally at the dispatcher or call-taker's discretion, but that was frequently subject to discussion. Over the years, use of "Code 3" has waxed and waned; in the early 70's, not much went code 3 except "Officer Needs Help" calls, "211 (robbery)" alarms at banks. 211's or shootings-in-progress or other life-threatening calls would go Code 3 at the complaint-board officer's discretion, if the call appeared to be valid and critical enough. Plain old 459s (burglaries) and "just occurred" shootings, cuttings, robberies invariably went code 2. Traffic accident calls were NEVER code 3 except the occasional "person trapped in a burning vehicle" or some such. The rationale, I suppose, was that the ambulance, if any, would be going Code 3, and the officers were just going along for the paperwork.
Below the address lines, the various codes and
messages were very succinctly and, for the most part, logically
arranged, so the operator simply had to circle all the
appropriate items. The ticket was time-stamped in various places
to indicate time received, time dispatched, time completed, and a
few other times for special messages. And each call was
sequentially number-stamped by the RTO at the time it was
dispatched.
EMERGENCY MESSAGE LOG - "BLUE"
Click on
"BLUE" above for larger .pdf version
These blue tickets were used in dispatching more serious crime-in-progress calls ("hot shots"), as well as recording "crime broadcast" information provided by the unit at the scene. Again, the most common words and codes are preprinted, needing only to be circled, and the format provided for a fairly uniform sequence of information for all crime broadcasts. Of course, the officers didn't have these tickets in the field, so they would give the RTO their information in whatever order they happened to have jotted it down or remembered it. After receiving and broadcasting a few hundred of these, most RTOs could keep up with the fastest talking, most excited officer and get all the information down the first time.
Officer-Initiated Message Log - "Pink"
The "Officer-Initiated Message Log" was the most frequently used of the tickets. Virtually every time an officer called in on the radio, the message would be a "request" (left side of page) or "report" (right side) of some kind, and would go on a "pink." Most RTO's would put their operator number - I was #148 - on pads of pinks ahead of time...that would save a precious second or so on every message during an emergency or on a busy night. Normally the RTO would sit with pencil poised over a stack of pinks. Ever-vigilant and attentive bunch that we are.
"6A15 out to the station,"..."12A97
requesting Code 7 (lunch),"... "11X42! OFFICER
NEEDS HELP..!!" ... "11A19 enroute Code 3 to
the 'help' call!" ... "11Mary161 and 162 also enroute"
- All these messages went - legibly - on the pink tickets, along
with the sequential number stamp and time stamp. A busy division
on a busy day could easily reach 1500 or more tickets in twenty-four
hours until "STAMP TIME" right at midnight, when we'd
have to find enough time to open the number stamp and reset it
back to #001. And start it all over again.
