Nov. 10, 1964 - A citywide police telephone number for emergency calls was put into operation today by New York Mayor Robert Wagner.
The new number — 440-1234 — is expected to speed police response to emergency calls from the public.
When a person dials the new number from a telephone in any of the five boroughs, the call activates new switching equipment at the telephone company’s central offices. The equipment, through a series of relays, automatically routes the call directly to the police communications bureau in the borough involved.
Shortly before 10 a.m. today, Mayor Wagner inaugurated the new system by placing two calls, spaced six minutes apart, to the Manhattan communications bureau from the porch of Gracie Mansion. Seated on a couch, the Mayor dialed 440‐1234 on a green telephone and then, holding the receiver close to his ear, waited for about 10 seconds.
From a speaker attached to the telephone came the voice of Patrolman James J. Smith, an operator on the emergency board at Manhattan headquarters.
“Operator, this is the Mayor,” Wagner said. “Just testing and checking to see if the new number is working.”
The Mayor then handed the receiver to Acting Police Commissioner John Walsh, who identified himself, and announced that “the new emergency police number, 440‐1234, is now in effect.”
The new system results from almost a year of work by the New York Telephone Company and the communications bureau of the Police Department. It involved the rewiring of lines in the company’s 500 central telephone offices and special switching centers in the five boroughs.
The new number is intended only for emergencies. Routine business calls should be placed on telephones designated for police administration.
In emergency cases, the information given by the caller is relayed to the radio room and the nearest patrol car or ambulance is sent to the scene.
Persons needing police help may also dial “0” for the telephone operator, who will relay the call to the police. However, this procedure is likely to take longer.
Mr. Walsh said yesterday that new police operators had been added in each of the boroughs so that the emergency calls could be answered in 50 seconds. If the call was not answered in that time, he said, a red light would flash over the board indicating that the call should be given priority.
Calls to the new number will be free. Coins will be returned from pay telephones, and there will be no message charge on private phones. The new number will be printed on the cover of the new telephone directories, and telephone customers in the city will have the number listed on their monthly bills.
Mr. Phalen said the new system for the number cost the telephone company about $250,000.
Police headquarters in Manhattan reported that from 9:30 A.M. to midnight yesterday, 716 emergency calls came in on the new number and 606 calls on the old number. The total number of calls, the police said, was about average for a weekday.
In addition, the police reported that there were a number of calls on the new number where the caller said, “Oh, it works,” and hung up.
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