It was a fairly calm night with some speeding, some inebriated and suspicious wandering about, and a number of 911 calls to report a power outage. ("Sir, darkness and a lack of TV is not a life threatening emergency.") An uncle of mine was the chief of police in a mid-sized town in the mid-1960s where the police chief's family was automatically part of the office staff. I recall hanging around the station a few times while my aunt or a cousin manned the radio. And I do mean THE RADIO. There were probably two or three telephone lines but I think there was a single microphone and radio to communicate with the two or three active patrol cars and the communication was often "Where are you?"

There are six screens in front of each La Mesa dispatcher providing officer locations, call status, and various other situation details. The dispatchers monitor multiple phone lines and radio channels. They have nearly instant access to information such as auto registration, arrest records, and incident history. I found it quite interesting to see the array of tools that little old radio has grown into in half a century, and I found it quite satisfying to see how well my son handled things. I'd no doubt have been even more impressed the next night when a fight, a break-in, a potential suicide, and a wreck hit in a thirty minute period. Or the night after when the fun included a shooting and a high speed chase.