Police Call Box

Milwaukee had it's first call boxes in place by 1908, but in 1915 Oscar Kleinsteuber & his brother designed a call box that was duo-purposed; police use on one side, & to call the fire dept. on the other side, & it revolutionized the system. At first the brothers' company manufactured all the boxes, but in 1923 it was deemed to be a conflict of interests, since Oscar was the System Superintendent of public safety, & his brother, the assistant System Superintendent---how convenient! So a Chicago company began manufacturing the call boxes. The original boxes would have had blue lights on top--the one on this box has been broken off. The lights would be on at night so that the beat cops could easily see where the boxes were located. They were required to call in once an hour, & if they missed their check-in, more policemen would be sent to look for them. If the light on the top of the box was blinking, it signaled the beat cop to call into Headquarters. All police had keys to the boxes, & when unlocked, in addition to the phone, there was a "hook" inside that was spring loaded. If it was pulled once, a paddy wagon was sent to that location. If it was pulled twice, the policeman was calling for assistance. This box is a much later version, probably from the 1940's---the earlier boxes were much more ornate. They were in use until sometime in the late 1960's, at which time neighborhood kids were breaking open the doors & "hooking" the boxes so often that police headquarters stopped answering the phones, & their useful times were over. Due to the high cost to do a full scale removal, many of the old boxes were left in place, & a few can still be found through out the city.