Police box
A replica police box mounted with a modern surveillance camera located outside Earl's Court tube station in London, United Kingdom. Such boxes are a rare sight nowadays due to more modern communication devices used by the British police. This design also appears in Doctor Who.
A police box is a type of telephone box designed for contacting and supporting the police in the United Kingdom. A common sight in the UK from 1928 until the advent of police radios, most police boxes were demolished in the 1970s and 1980s, with only a few remaining - one on the seafront at Scarborough, North Yorkshire, for example. Various designs exist, the most famous being used in the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who.
Police boxes could be made of wood or concrete and allowed patrolling police officers to contact their nearest police station. Equipment such as a first aid kit could be stored in the box, and also allowed officers to rest.[1] The concrete boxes could also serve as a temporary jail for arrested individuals until they could be incarcerated in a police cell.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), makers of Doctor Who, have trademarked the police box design seen in the Earl's Court replica. Legal action in the 2000s by the London Metropolitan Police Service to challenge this was unsuccessful, as the 'Met' had not previously registered the design as a trademark.[2]
Footnotes
- ↑ Metropolitan Police Service: 'Police Boxes'.
- ↑ UK Patent Office: 'IN THE MATTER OF Application No. 2104259 by The British Broadcasting Corporation to register a series of three marks in Classes 9, 16, 25 and 41 AND IN THE MATTER OF Opposition thereto under No. 48452 by The Metropolitan Police Authority'; BBC News: 'BBC wins police Tardis case'. 23rd October 2002.