[GreenKeys] Police Teletype???

[Jim Haynes]

I would guess that maybe long ago there was a system using actual Teletype
equipment for the police system, and that it is now replaced by computer
terminals but the people using it still call it a 'teletype' out of habit.

If you go back to ancient history you'll find systems of Teletype machines
designed for police systems.  I can't come up with a reference off the top
of my head, but I remember seeing articles about a network for a state
police system.  That would obviously be valuable in an era when fugitives
driving cars could cover long distances fast - the police could get ahead
of them with the ability to broadcast descriptions faster than the cars
could cover ground.

Much more recently there were the systems like NCIC that used Teletype
equipment nationwide for police purposes.

As a sort of parallel example, I remember circa 1960 the Air Force
used the term "twix" , pronounceable name for the Bell System TWX
service, to mean any message sent by Teletype.  By then the AF had its
own message switching systems although I suppose Bell TWX was used in some
instances to pass messages outside the internal message system.  But
you would hear people say, "Send a twix to such-and-such..." when in fact
the message was to go on the private message system of the service.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was a similar expression in the business
world where there was use of both TWX and a company's internal private
message switching system.  And you could hear "telex" used the same way
as a generic term for a telegraph message.

 	---

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