Regenerate the 'Tardis' police call box to boost fight against crime, says think-tank The project could be funded by closing down out-of-date police stations and replacing them with "locally-embedded police offices and services," it added. Max Chambers, from Policy Exchange, said: "A new, modern version of the Tardis police box might not be able to travel through time, but it would certainly bring the police into the future, allowing us to close outdated and expensive police stations, increase public access to the police and offer a more convenient service to the public." Professor Martin Innes, author of the report, said: "Around the country there has been uproar whenever chief constables suggest they might want to close some police stations. However, the truth is that most crime is reported by phone, many stations are getting old and increasingly expensive to maintain and are often located in the wrong places, away from key population centres. Britain's first police box was introduced in Glasgow in 1891 and allowed officers - whose only communication device was a whistle - to contact their police station. A flashing light on top of the box indicated that passing constables were required to phone in to respond to an emergency. The best-known design - upon which the Tardis was based - came into use in 1929 and there were more than 600 in London by the early 1950s. The boxes were made redundant in the late 1960s by the introduction of the police walkie-talkie. The Dutch city of Rotterdam has already introduced 17 high-tech police contact points with 3D screens displaying "virtual police officers." Doctor Who's Tardis is stuck in the appearance of a 1960s police box because of a malfunction in its "chameleon circuit" which is meant to make the ship blend in with its surroundings, according to the programme's writers. Police box facts: The 1929 police box on which the Tardis was based was designed by Gilbert MacKenzie Trench, the Metropolitan Police's surveyor. It was initially made of wood but later versions were of pre-formed concrete. Members of the public could make direct contact with the local police station by using the police phone located in an external hatch, and constables could unlock the box which contained a desk, stool and first aid kit. In 1997 a new police box based on the MacKenzie Trench design was constructed outside Earl's Court Tube station in west London, with a CCTV camera on top. Unlike police boxes in other parts of the country, Glasgow's were painted red. Tardis facts: The creation of the Doctor's Tardis is attributed to BBC drama staff writer Anthony Coburn, co-author of the show's first episode An Unearthly Child in 1963, who came up with the idea after seeing a police box while taking a stroll near his office. The BBC's application to trademark the blue police box was challenged by the Metropolitan Police in 1996, but the broadcaster eventually won in 2002. A 17-inch Tardis model first used in a 1965 episode sold at auction for £10,800 in 2005. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop created the Tardis' materialisation sound effect by dragging a set of house keys along the strings of an old piano. New rooms and corridors of the Doctor's ship - and other surprises - were revealed to Doctor Who fans in the latest episode, 'Journey to the Centre of the Tardis'.