Traffic Control Box: https://www.apx-enclosures.com/applications/traffic
Key to the Boxes:
https://www.ankifyz.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=523307
Then their equipment must be dated. Our boxes here take a cylindrical key.
But I wonder why he’s walking around with it. We have to call our states DOT before we can even remove the key from the Key Master.
I guess I haven’t paid attention, do cops normally have things hanging from their epaulettes?
Seems the norm for APD, here are a couple of other pics. These look like whistles and the type of handcuff key that I think of.
This memorial pic for an officer seems to have the same setup as the OP, but the pic is from 2015.
A whistle chain (with the actual whistle inside the shirt pocket) and a radio mic, occasionally a pair of sunglasses. But a key looks odd to me. There is a specific belt keeper for that.
But uniform styles do vary by location. Some departments have large strap keepers that go over the shoulder front to back. Makes them look like they’re invading Poland. I would think in a fight that’s the first thing a bad guy would grab at.
So the whistles in these pics are on a retractable lanyard? Pull it out to whistle, let go and it reels back into place? Doesn’t seem like a very secure setup, unless the reel is built into the uniform. Looks like that would come off pretty easy in a struggle.
Sam Browne belt?
It is named after Sir Samuel J. Browne (1824–1901), the, eventually one armed, British Indian Army general who invented it.
It looks like the officers in the picture have retractors. I have mine on a chain. It hooks on the epaulet and hangs down into my shirt pocket.
It’s a traffic box key for use to get to the first set of control switches. This lets you run stop time on the traffic lights. Getting to the inside where there are more controls takes the regular tumbler key like those on your door at home. I turned mine in when I retired so I can’t send a picture.
You want it to come off easily in a struggle. If a bad guy got a hold of it over the officer’s left shoulder & it didn’t break off easily the retractable leash would now be across the officer’s neck.
Upon enlarging the picture, they just look like standard plastic badge holders - no leash, so even if it somehow got caught on the epaulet & didn’t come off it’s not long enough to go across the officer’s neck.
It appears to be one bitting of a key for a vintage/antique Gamewell brand lock and they appear to be used by both police and firefighters.
https://www.google.com/search?q=vintage+gamewell++key+police&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjcndSo2ID4AhVhD1kFHZ4jCnsQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=vintage+gamewell++key+police&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQA1AAWK0lYNMsaAFwAHgAgAFHiAHoA5IBATiYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=a0uRYpy8LuGe5NoPnseo2Ac&bih=586&biw=1262&hl=en
How secure does a whistle need to be?
Not the whistle, the handcuff key that’s on the same reel.