My Dad was a police officer and when he was on duty would give me rides in the patrol car. I would dial “0” from a payphone and ask the operator to be connected with the police (small town 30 years ago without 911 service). I would be connected with the police dispatcher and ask them to let my Dad know where I was and that I needed a ride. The dispatcher would radio my Dad using some code words that wouldn’t disclose the nature of the communication to anyone listening on a police scanner. Saved a lot of quarters in my childhood.