The New Zealand Police Northern Communication Centre in Auckland is a utilitarian, high-tech, high pressure workplace handling the phone and radio communications necessary for a population of close to 2 million people.

As part of a project to add a little character to the building, we thought it might be nice to locate a few bits of antique equipment and photos to decorate the building and remind us of the less frenetic and more leisurely communications of the past.

Since then, thanks to the generosity of a large number of people who have provided equipment, memories and information, the "few bits of equipment" has become a sizeable collection located in the training section of our communication centre. This website has been created for two purposes - firstly to act as an interactive catalogue to the collection which can be viewed "off-line" by visitors to the communication centre, and secondly, in its "online" form, so that anyone with an interest in the history of police communications but who is not able to visit the real thing, can take a virtual trip through the collection.

When members of the emergency services put themselves in harms way in order to protect their public, their only link to safety and support is usually a radio. When a member of the public needs help fast, they rely on "someone" at the end of a phone line to get that help.

The tenuous electronic lifelines that we rely on are only possible because of the unsung and often maligned communicators, dispatchers and technicians who make the systems work.

This collection is dedicated to those of our profession who have gone before us, and to acknowledge those who, as you read this, are struggling under a headset or up an antenna mast to hold it all together and still keep a smile in their voice.