09/28/2026
On April 7, 1928, a radio transmitter on Belle Isle in Detroit started sending calls to patrol cars. Station W8FS of the Detroit Police Department became the first agency in the country to dispatch its cars by radio on a regular basis.
It changed everything about police work. An officer no longer had to find a call box. The call found the officer.
It also created a problem nobody thought about for the next 60 years.
The patrol car had just become an office...but there was no desk in it.
This is the story of how that changed.
From the first patrol car radio in 1928 to the 1997 Jotto Desk patent, see how Tenhold engineered the modern patrol vehicle office. Explore our products.