At first a handful of police officers transmitted Morse code to wireless cars, now there are 1,550 staff at three high-tech centralised communications complexes in Bow, Hendon and Lambeth. Dial 999 From Morse code to 13,000 calls daily: 80 years of 999
I bet the response time would have been a lot quicker in those days and not just due to the McDonalds and Burger King factor!
Times have changed. Extracted from the link Dial 999 above. "One of the earliest emergency calls resulted in the arrest of a Thomas Duffy, a burglar who was breaking into a house in Hampstead at 4.20 in the morning. The householder disturbed him and Mrs Stanley Beard called the police at Scotland Yard by dialling 999. Her husband told the magistrates’ court that he was very impressed by the new system as the police arrested the burglar within 5 minutes of the call being made. My wife made use of the new signal which we were instructed to use yesterday on the telephone, and as a result of using that signal almost instantaneous connection was made with the police station, and in less than five minutes this man was arrested,” he said. ‘It struck me, as a householder and fairly large taxpayer, that we are getting something for our money, and I was very much impressed by it." Tim
