Frantic gestures

I passed through a dead-traffic-light intersection yesterday. Four lanes each way on my street, two each way on the cross street. They had four cops out directing traffic. (Slow crime day, I guess.)
The odd part was, not a one of them had a whistle.
When I was a kid, any cop directing traffic always had a shiny chrome whistle stuck in his (in those days it was invariably his) mouth. There was even a cop in Pittsburgh (while I was in college there) whose traffic direction (aided by his whistle) frequently made those video shows; he was a treat to watch.
Police whistles, of course, are descendants of those used by the British Metropolitan Police; in the last century, before radios, that's the best method the 'bobbies' had for communicating.
Even in these days of loud car stereos and iPods, a good shrill cop whistle can cut through the urban noise like nothing else.
I'll miss 'em. Damn sure, the cops at that intersection could have used 'em...