In 1942, Benjamin DeWitt Cobb, known as “B.D.,” became the lone police officer for the town of Foley. In 1943, after another officer was hired, B.D. became the first Chief of Police, marking the founding of the Foley Police Department. He served as chief until 1971, when failing health led him to resign, and he then remained with the department for several more years as a captain. Early in his tenure, Foley made an innovative agreement with John M. Snook, founder of the Gulf Telephone Company, to speed police response time. A light was erected atop the building on the southwest corner of this intersection, and citizens needing police service would call the Gulf Telephone Co. operator, who served as the first police dispatcher. The operator would activate the light, and Chief Cobb, usually on foot patrol or sitting on a park bench nearby, would see it and go to a nearby phone to receive the details of the call. The light soon became known as “Cobb’s Light.” Later in his tenure, Chief Cobb was instrumental in establishing the first radio communications for a municipal police department in Baldwin County, making “Cobb’s Light” unnecessary. The light remained atop the building until the mid 1990’s, when it was removed during a roofing project and lost.