Judge Won't Let The City Cart Those Call Boxes Away

Not dead yet! (sally henny penny's flickr)

The thousands of police and fire call boxes that are sprinkled across our fair metropolis are not going anywhere. Though the city would really, really, really like to get rid of the 14,500 boxes around town (and save a few million bucks) a judge yesterday denied a motion to let the city take them down. Besides being a win for the deaf, this is also good news for those without cellphones and fans of non-Cemusa-branded street adornments!

In his 50-page decision Judge Robert Sweet argued that a 15-year-old ban on the city removing the boxes should stay put since letting it go would essentially be discriminating against the deaf. The city, for its part, argued that the deaf would be just as well served by public payphones outfitted for a "tapping system" to communicate with emergency workers but Sweet wasn't buying. He pointed out that far more payphones are out of service at any given time than call boxes (17-25 percent of payphones are generally not working at one time depending on how you count while only nine percent of call boxes are out of service). He also noted that the tapping system is still mostly unproven and, worse, not enough deaf people know about it to make it useful.

The city—which says that between 85 and 95 percent of all calls to call boes are bogus and that they cost the city nearly $6 million a year to maintain—is planning on appealing. But in the meantime lawyers for the Civic Association of the Deaf of New York City are celebrating, calling Sweets's ruling a "momentous, life-saving ruling that protects the rights of the deaf and hearing-impaired in the City."

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By Garth Johnston in News on August 16, 2011 2:45 PM

Comments [rss]

Guest

There are quite a number of situations where a person would not have access to any telephone but are within 200 feet of an alarm box. The removal of street boxes would only be supported by a person without a clue.

Nos Feratu

For less than $6 million you could buy every deaf person in this city an el-cheapo cell phone and train them how to text.

RammyH

I'm not a privatize everything kind of guy, but I imagine any number of go-getters out there can maintain those 14,500 Call Boxes for less than $6 million a year.

heyhohey

It's not the maintenance that costs that much, it's the police response to the fake calls.

SonnyBobiche

I'm all for compassion but not at the expense of all of the rest of society. It's like the idea for public restroom booths. The handicapped sued because only 25% of the booths would be wheel chair accessible. The city argued that the big booths could not be made self cleaning (steam wash). They would require constant monitoring and would be prohibitively expensive. The nadicapped lobby replied that either they got their booths or nobody got booths. Nobody got booths.

The day that the american with disabilities passed, I knew that it was one of those ways to hell paved with good intentions things. Everybody else pays now, including for those people claiming handicapped status for mental illnesses. Most of the people claiming disabilities for a mental condition used to be called plain old jerks before the darn bill passed.

colonelcasey

I'm surprised the percentage of false calls isn't 100%.

ANGRYGOD11

Isnt it cheaper to give the deaf cellphones to text in case of emergencies than maintain 14,500 boxes around town?

Sugarbop

OK, maybe I'm confused or slow or whatever, but how do these call boxes really help the deaf? Because on the box it says "YOU MUST ANSWER TO GET HELP". So..unless I'm wrong...a deaf person can't hear the other person, so how can they answer?

Guest

That is only on an ERS box like in the picture. Regular pull boxes do not require an answer.

Sugarbop

That makes more sense.

heyhohey

deaf people can still talk and feel vibrations. You don't need to hear someone on the other line to call for help.

Sugarbop

Ok, so what are they supposed to do to feel the vibrations? Sit on the call box? I'm just going by the picture, you may not "need to hear someone on the other line to call for help", but as per the picture, they need to hear you or you get no help.

heyhohey

If they feel the vibrations coming out of the speaker they know that someone is talking on the other end and they can talk back to them. Deaf does not equal mute. It's pretty simple.