Police box

A police box is a telephone kiosk or callbox for use by members of the police. Police boxes pre-date the era of modern telecommunications; today, every police officer (in technologically developed countries) is likely to carry a two-way radio. The typical police box contained a telephone linked directly to the local police station allowing officers "on the beat" to keep in contact with the station, reporting anything unusual, requesting help if necessary or even to detain prisoners until a vehicle could be sent to transport them to the station or to jail. This was in the day when most police officers walked a beat or rode a bicycle rather than using a police car. An electric light on top of the box would flash to alert a beat officer that he was requested to contact the station. Members of the public could also use the phone (which was on the exterior) to contact a police station in an emergency.

British police boxes were usually blue. In addition to a telephone they contained essential equipment such as an incident book and a first aid kit.

History
In Britain, police call boxes first began appearing in the 1880s. These were direct line telephones placed on a post which could often be accessed by a key or breaking a glass. These call boxes were adopted and widely used in the United States (see picture, left).

The first "modern" British police boxes in the form of kiosks or booths (see picture, right) were introduced in the mid-1920s and were in wide use by the mid-1930s. The interiors of these boxes normally contained, for the use of officers; a stool, a table, brushes and dusters, a fire extinguisher and a small electric heater.

The earliest boxes were made of wood, and later ones of concrete, which officers complained were extremely cold. They played an important part in police work until the mid-1960s, when they were phased out following the introduction of personal radios. As the main function of this box was superseded by the rise of portable telecommunications like the walkie-talkie and the mobile phone, there are very few police boxes left in Britain today. Some of those remaining, like in Edinburgh, have been converted into high street coffee bars, though the City has many dozens remaining untouched, most in various states of disrepair.

In 1997, a replica 1950s-era police box was erected outside the Earl's Court tube station in London, equipped with CCTV cameras and a telephone to contact police. (See image at top of this article.) The telephone ceased to function in April 2000 when London's telephone numbers were changed, but the box remained despite the fact that funding for its upkeep and maintenance had long since dried up. In March 2005, the Metropolitan Police resumed funding the refurbishment and maintenance of the box.

Doctor Who Story References

 * Early in his travels, the Doctor's TARDIS assumed the exterior shape of a police box during a five-month stopover in 1963 London. Due a malfunction in its chameleon circuit, - caused, many believe, by radiation from the Hand of Omega, - the TARDIS became locked into that shape ("An Unearthly Child," "Remembrance of the Daleks").


 * Dodo Chaplet entered the TARDIS believing it to be a police box and wanting to make an emergency call, as did a later companion of the Doctor's, Tegan Jovanka ("The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve," "Logopolis"). The exact circumstances of why Dodo needed to make such a call, and her wiliingness to leave with the Doctor, became evident during the events of "Salvation."


 * The Master once also disguised his TARDIS as a police box, namely to trick the Doctor into materializing his own TARDIS around it and carry it to Logopolis, where the Time Lord criminal hoped to steal the Logopolitans' secrets for use in his nefarious schemes.


 * The Doctor's TARDIS has on several occassions been mistaken for a real police box by members of the police ("The Chase," "Logopolis," "Black Orchid").

Behind the Scenes
The British Broadcasting Corporation holds a trademark to the British design of the police box as used in the science fiction television series Doctor Who. In the programme, the main character's time machine (the TARDIS) is in the shape of a 1930s-era Metropolitan police box.