Look Back: Radios installed in Harveys Lake police cruisers in 1955
Apr. 7—Police in Harveys Lake were a step ahead from other smaller police departments in the area in 1955.
In today's world of instant contact, we look back and scoff.
"A two-way radio system of communication to provide immediate contact between headquarters and patrol cars has been installed for the Harveys Lake Police Department and is now in operation," the Wilkes-Barre Record reported April 15, 1955.
Radios in police cars were already in use within the larger police departments, but Harveys Lake was the first small police department to get equipped with two-way communications.
The two-way radios in the lake's police cruisers were made possible by the Harveys Lake Protective Association.
"One of the most popular summer resorts in Luzerne County, it was deemed necessary in view of the thousands of motorists who drive to the lake on weekends and holidays, and will enable police headquarters to communicate immediately with either of the two patrol cars in the event of accidents," the Record reported.
The two-way radios installed in Harveys Lake police cars were seen as top edge technology of the time.
The base station of communications was set up in the Daniel C. Roberts Fire House in the Alderson section of Harveys Lake with an auxiliary unit in the apartment of Police Chief Edgar W. Hughes, which was on the second floor of the fire house.
Radios were installed in the two Harveys Lake police cars, a community ambulance and a fire truck.
"Receiver and transmitter equipment are located in the trunks of the vehicles while instruments described as a telephone is hung on the dashboards," the Record reported.
Chief Hughes' wife was the dispatcher accepting and processing calls for service.
"Chief Hughes said the equipment has been tested and operates perfectly in a 35 mile radius of the fire house and has no dead spots in Harveys Lake and Lake Township," the Record story reported.
Before the two-way radios were installed, calls for service had to be relayed around the lake to find a policemen on duty.
Total cost of the state-of-the-art communication system in 1955 was $4,000, which included a tower 42 feet high with a 12-feet antenna built behind the fire house.
After the success of the two-way radios in Harveys Lake police cars, smaller police departments of Luzerne, Pringle, Dallas, West Pittston and Plymouth followed with their own radios.
