TIMELINE
PRESERVING THE HISTORY OF
First Responders The Murphy Call Box
Jeremiah “Jerry” Murphy, previously employed by the Cleveland Telephone Company, was hired as a lineman in 1887 for the Cleveland Police Department. He invented a small communication system named after him, The Murphy Call Box. This compact system combined the signal alarm, the telegraph and the telephone system into one unit. Each box was numbered and wired to a corresponding Gamewell alarm in the Central Station house. Each patrol officer was required to “ring-in” at predetermined times. This was accomplished by pulling the lever inside the box which set in operation a wheel that sent a coded message via telegraph to the precinct house. One pull was the signal that the officer was on post and all right. Two pulls meant that the officer was requesting a patrol wagon to transport an arrested person. In 1928, the year before radio communication was introduced into the CPD, there were 640 call boxes and 900 fire alarm boxes in use. The Police Call Boxes were all painted blue and the Fire Boxes were all painted red. The Murphy Call Box was the first of its kind in the United States and was copied by a number of other cities.
POLICE PATROL AND EXCHANGE The following is an excerpt from a 1898 history of the Cleveland Police Department. One of the most interesting, efficient and useful features of the Department is the Police Patrol and Exchange System. It is in charge of Superintendent Jerry Murphy and was inaugurated June 1, 1887. At first this department was more of an experiment than anything else and consisted of fifty patrol boxes; two patrol wagons;
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one stationed at the Central and the other at the Eighth Precinct; twenty-one instruments and twenty-one miles of wire. The experiment proved successful and the following year additions were made to the system, making it more efficient, and at this time, ten years after its inauguration, can be counted one of the best, if not the best of any department in the United States. At present the system includes a very complete operating room
