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Bought my first Packard in August. Going through wiring on my 1940 120. I have two foot switches on drivers side. One of course is high beams. The other has a heavy armored cable on it it is cut off though. Also have a foot switch on the passenger side with a heavy armored cable which goes up in to A post on passenger side. Havent pulled headliner to see where it goes. What could this of been used for? Was it for siren possible police car. Any ideas. Thank you.

Photon torpedo.

Definitely not an item found on standard models so until you can trace the wires or find evidence there was something electrical mounted on the roof it will just be a guess. As I recall there was another poster who had a car with a similar drivers side footswitch arrangement and asked that question on the forum a few years back. I think his was a documented fire dept vehicle so it was speculated at that time the footswitch was for a siren.

Doing a search for police vehicle photos, it seems there were several combinations of sirens and lights. Many cars had sirens as separate items and maybe due to a fairly large size were mounted lower down on something a bit more substantial than the roof. There are some photos of a smaller combo siren and light mounted on roofs. Here is a fire dept prewar model with the combo unit.i.pinimg.com/originals/3f/30/77/3f3077ea8f33979ab55433184f85929f.jpg