There was a time where almost every Municipality and small town had a full time staffed Police Dispatcher at their Town Hall where a citizen could stop in and get assistance . But as 911 Service started rolling across the country these dispatch offices slowly started disappearing as 911 did the dispatching.
As a result many put outside the former dispatch offices an Emergency Call Box where you could open a box door and a auto dialing phone or call button connected you to 911 Center .
But with the invention of the Cell Phone their relevancy was soon lost along with fact the disappearance of POTS Plain Old Telephone Service meant no more self powered phone lines the boxes could no longer dial properly due to digital phone lines.
and then needed back up batteries etc to keep them working during a power failure . which meant more maintenance
This became a liability to many Municipality's who are now removing these boxes over concerns if needed they will not work properly and get sued .
I recently took one out in the North Boros for this exact reason.
now to become a museum piece .
This means citizens are totally dependent on having access to a working cell phone in an emergency as land lines are disperaing from homes and business as well.
The outcome there is no back up should there be an emergency and you need 911 service.
That's the whole problem with all the new digital technology there is no back up period.
With all the bad storms we have been having not a good ideal.