the first police telephone was installed in albany, new york in 1877, one year after alexander graham bell patented the telephone. call boxes for use by both police and trusted members of the public were first installed in chicago in 1880, initially housed in kiosks to protect the inner signal boxes from the weather and to limit access to them so as to discourage false alarms. in 1883, washington, d.c. installed its own system; detroit installed police call boxes in 1884, and in 1885, boston followed suit. these were direct line telephones usually placed inside a metal box on a post which could often be accessed by a key or breaking a glass panel. in chicago, the telephones were restricted to police use, but the boxes also contained a dial mechanism which members of the public could use to signal different types of alarms via telegraph: there were 11 signals, including "police wagon required", "thieves", "forgers", "murder", "accident", "fire" and "drunkard".