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by Tondoteottotote on January 11th, 2006

Tondoteottotote

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Why don't police officers use whistles anymore?

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Answers. 7 helpful answers below.

  • by Anonymous on January 12th, 2006

    Anonymous

    I am so glad someone asked this question. i still carry a whistle, after 40 yrs. of wearing a badge. just a habit, i guess. i do use it under certain circumstances. like directing traffic downtown, where the whistle can be heard! using a whistle on the freeway is like yelling under water, it cannot be heard. lets face it, in my state you can drive an automobile and be completely stone deaf. also, cannot overcome the boom boxes in the suvs. vision direction has taken over sound direction. the whistles are still around. like you said, the old timers still carry one from force of habit. gonna frame mine when i retire. toot! toot!

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  • by Alatea on January 12th, 2006

    Alatea

    In addition to Joe Speedy’s answer.

    In some countries police still carry whistles. In North America police whistles are sold to the public as safety whistles so it would be very confusing if both police and public used them. The good old traffic cop still works with a whistle!

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  • by Joe-Speedy on January 12th, 2006

    Joe-Speedy

    Now they have radios instead. Radios can be heard a lot farther away than whistles.

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  • by notmrjohn on January 13th, 2006

    notmrjohn

    I gave everbudy a useful.
    To add to the answers, in the days before radios and when cops actually walked a beat and were out of direct comunication with each other, there was a code of various whistle signals that could communicate a whole series of messages and even locations from
    " Come a runnin' I'm in trouble." to " Leave me alone, I'm cooping behind the O'Brians place."
    There was, especially in Britain, a similar code that could be rapped out with the baton on the pavement or some other object. If the object was some ne'er do wells skull the message was obvious.

    I'm gonna report pat just as soon as I can. How come you can never finda cop here in the Bag when ya need one?
    Hmm in the time it took me to send the feedbag, uh , feed back it seems the Answer cops done catched pat, at least on some of the ratings. Those ratings are not all that important to me, but I just hate to see someone use my name in vain. ( I almost used the term Bag cops, but I TAKE it that has another connotation ?

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  • by NYCROBO on March 24th, 2008

    NYCROBO

    Believe it or not, The whistle is still part of the police required equipment for officers in most departments. Officers don't carry them anymore because of the radio. In the past when officers needed assistance they would blow their whistles and police in listening distance would come running. With the radio in use the only use for the whistle is traffic control.

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  • by ChelseaMark on March 24th, 2008

    ChelseaMark

    Someone nicked their peas.

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  • by car audio crazy on March 24th, 2008

    car audio crazy

    a whistle will not stop a person who is being mugged

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