Police Phones on Chapel Hill's Main Street, Oct. 16, 1924

Police Phones on the Street. . . Instruments to be Placed on Poles. Officer Can be Called Quickly. . . Three on One Circuit

Three police telephones, fitted with alarm bells, are to be placed on poles along the Main street between the post-office and Andrews corner within the next few days. These will enable anybody to summon a police officer promptly by telephone.

This is the way the plan will work: Suppose, for example, that Mr. Wagstaff wants to put behind the prison bars a burglar whom he has detected rifling a neighbor’s house; or suppose there is an automobile collision opposite Mrs. Lawson’s and she wants immediate official aid; or suppose some group of revelers are disturbing the quiet of the night with boisterous laughter and shouts; then call central, and central will plug in on the new circuit and start the bells to ringing. A police officer is always on duty on the block, and he will run to the nearest of these phones and find out just where he is wanted.

Each of the three phones will be in a metal box to which every one of the town’s policemen will have a key. On the same circuit and with the same kind of alarm bell there will be a telephone in the police station at Rosemary and Columbia streets.

From the front page of The Chapel Hill Weekly, Thursday, Oct. 16, 1924

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073229/1924-10-16/ed-1/seq-1/#words=OCTOBER+16%2C+1924