Faster Emergency Response Time - Motorola's First Police Car Radios

Motorola, then known as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation, introduced its first commercially successful car radios, in June 1930. The device was intended initially for the general public, but soon city governments as well as police departments across Chicago and the US clamored for radios for public safety use. This was the start of Motorola's pioneering expertise in the field of mobile communication.

When the first commercial radio broadcast went on air in the 1920's, it became the cheapest form of entertainment enjoyed by the general public. Hobbyists began experimenting by fitting their home radios into motorcars. Galvin Manufacturing saw this opportunity and began producing car radios for public consumption.

A market nobody owned

In the meantime, police stations laboured to relay messages to patrol officers. Police officers often used public telephones on the street to contact the station which delayed response time in an emergency. Police departments experimented by interrupting radio broadcasts to relay messages to patrol cars equipped with car radios. This step, however, not only delayed communications but also informed the radio listeners where the problems were. Understandably, a better and faster means of communication was needed.

Not long after Galvin Manufacturing marketed its car radio for public use, it began to receive orders from the public safety sector. Company co-founder Paul Galvin foresaw the market for this demand. He realised there was a need in this market that nobody owned.

Creating the first police car radio

Galvin Manufacturing manufactured its first police car radio by modifying its consumer car radios. Police departments would specify the radio frequency that their sets should receive.
Galvin Manufacturing technicians would then manually adjust the tuning coils and condensers to the desired frequency. The police radio chassis were placed in the same housing as the consumer house radios and both the consumer and police car radios were given a brand name - Motorola.

As the use of police car radios grew, problems emerged. Bad roads, unstable frequency, high power utilisation, car engine noises and signal interference led Galvin Manufacturing to produce a better radio specifically designed for police patrol cars.

The first police car radio customers

Relaying a message from a police station to its roving patrol cars was the pioneering move in Galvin Manufacturing's mobile communication. However, patrol cars at this time were unable to transmit back to their station's dispatchers to reply or ask for assistance. Galvin Manufacturing took their chief engineer, Don Mitchell, to task to design a two-way radio system for patrol cars. The company introduced the Model T6920 AM mobile transmitter in August 1939, which has a frequency range of 30-40 MHz. It was soon followed by the P6912 VHF receiver and radio base equipment.

This new Motorola two-way mobile radio system was more powerful, easily installed and carried only one-fourth of its competitor's price tag. In 1940, the Bowling Green Police Department in Kentucky was the first law enforcement division to use a complete AM two-way mobile radio system. These same well-designed radio models were produced for many years until the new FM technology took over in the 1940"s.