THE FOLLOWING ARE THE introductory paragraphs of an article appearing in The New York Times, Tuesday, 2 July, 1968. The story was published on the first page of the second section of that day’s newspaper, was by-lined by David Burnham, and is copyrighted by The New York Times.
The article was entitled “Police Emergency Center Dedicated By Mayor.”
Mayor Lindsay yesterday dedicated a $1.3-million police communications center that cuts in half the average time it takes the police to dispatch emergency help to the citizen.
“The miraculous new electronic communication system we inaugurate this morning will affect the life of every New Yorker in every part of our city, every hour of the day,” Mr. Lindsay said during a ceremony staged in the vast, windowless, air-conditioned communications center on the fourth floor of the ponderous old Police Headquarters building at 240 Centre Street.
“This is, perhaps, the most important event of my administration as Mayor,” Mr. Lindsay said. “No longer will a citizen in distress risk injury to life or property because of an archaic communications system.”
The Mayor dedicated the new system about four weeks after it went into operation.
In that period the police response time to emergency calls was reduced to 55 seconds from about two minutes through a number of complex inter-related changes in the police communication change.
First, the time it takes to dial the police has been shortened by changing the old seven-digit emergency number—440-1234—to a new three-digit number, 911.
Second, the time it takes the police to answer an emergency call has been reduced by increasing the maximum number of policemen receiving calls during critical periods to 48 from 38 and by putting them in one room where all are available to handle any emergency that might occur in one area. Under the old system, when a citizen dialed 440-1234, his call went to a separate communications center situated in the borough from which he was calling.