Police Sirens Are Invaluable Tools To The Law Enforcement Officer
Police car sirens are one of the most important systems utilized by law enforcement personnel. It gives the officer a way to grab a driver's attention or to let the driver know that they need to get out of the way. While most police cars have light bars or beacons to grab people's attention, these visual alert systems are easy for the driver to ignore. This is especially true if the driver is distracted. Police car sirens however, are very hard for the driver to ignore. Even if the driver is not using his mirrors or is talking to the person seated next to him, a wailing police siren is sure to capture his attention.
A distant cousin to police car sirens can be traced back to the nineteenth century. This device was used on buggys and horse drawn carriages to alert drivers that the officer was approaching. This primitive siren was composed of two disks and a pneumatic tube. This system worked by pushing air from the pneumatic tube, and in between the two disks. One of the disks would rotate, while the other would remain stationary. This would create friction between the two disks and produce a high pitched wail. A few of these police car sirens were made, but they were quickly discontinued because they were found to be too bulky and unreliable.
Today, there are two types of modern police sirens, mechanical sirens and electronic sirens. Mechanical police sirens are very similar to the air-driven sirens, but they are a little more complex. These sirens consist of an electric motor, a metal drum, an air intake, and a fan. When the siren is switched on, the electric motors causes the fan that is attached to it to rotate. This fan rotation causes air to be sucked in through the air intake. This air is then forced out of a metal drum. This causes it vibrate and produce the familiar siren sound. Though the mechanical siren may seem basic in its conception, the modern ones are actually fairly complex and reliable.
The police siren that is more commonly used these days by modern police departments is the electronic siren. These police car sirens are composed of a circuit board, oscillator, modulator and a speaker. These police car sirens have become extremely popular over the last few years. In fact, many people would consider them to be the industry standard among law enforcement personnel. This is because these types of police car sirens present a large number of different audio options to the officer. They can produce a number of different sounds which include air horn, the wail, phaser sound, high-low sound, and yelping sound. Therefore, the officer can choose the sound that he/she feels is the most appropriate for the situation they are dealing with.
Modern mechanical and electronic sirens are very versatile, and give the officer the tools he need to adequately do his job. They allow the officer to warn motorists of dangerous situations, and allow the officer to grab the undivided attention of any drivers on the road.
