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Calipatria, Imperial County, Calif. I
AND PEACE OFFICERS' JOURNAL
OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
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OF SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT
APRIL 17th AT CIVIC AUDITORIUM
Program of outstanding acts from stage, radio and movies
followed by the traditional Grand March led
by Governor and Mrs. Earl Warren and
Mayor and Mrs. Elmer E. Robinson
A BIG EVENING'S ENTERTAINMENT FOR $1.00
GET YOUR TICKETS FROM THE POLICEMAN ON YOUR BEAT
Ihe A%%oc\a\\on paid out over 5125,000 to Widows and
Orphans of 42 members who passed away during 1947.
MARCH
1941
AN OFFICIAL PUBLICATIOf
POLICE AND PEACE OFFICERS' JOURNAL
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March, 1948
POLICE AND PEACE OFFICERS' JOURNAL
Page )
Featured in This Issue
PACE
FCC Hears From Peace Officers 3
Bv Commxssiorxer T>onaXdL S. Leonard
Sheriff Devitt of Santa Cru: County .... 5
Under Able Guidance of Chief Robert Tracy,
Oakland Stands Out in Nation for Crime Pre-
vention and Juvenile Delinquency .... 6
Bv B. S. Sanders
Sheriff John R. Dower of Yuba County ... 7
Bay Counties" Peace Officers" Association Meet 8
Northern CaHfomia Communication Officers"
Association Monthly Meeting 9
Social Security for Police Officers 10'
Bv Charles H. Shreve
Professional Police Service 12
Bv H. C. Bridges
Chief AI Huntsman of Santa Cruz .... 13
How Officer's Killers Were Caught . . 14
Present Task of Law Enforcement . 15
Bv H. C. Van Pelt
Securit)' Details" Second Annual Meet ... 16
Crime Prevention 17
By Chief Special Agent Harry M. Kimball
Bureau of Inspectors Honor Two Captains 18
Inspector Wall Takes CK-er Stock and Bond
Detail 19
Editorial Page 20
Pistol Pointing 21
By J. Ross Dunnigan
Watsonville"s New Chief Is Newspaperman . 25
Chief BasU W. Gregory of Eureka .... 27
Crime Trends in CaHfomia 32
By Chief George H. Brereton, State B of I and I
Former Officer Fitzgerald in New Job . . 34
It"s Now Chief Thatcher of Western Pacific . 36
Some Are True and ScHne Are False — Rate
Yourself 50
Directory
'I"hc Editor is always pleased to consider articles suitable tor publication.
Contributions should preferably be typewritten, but where this is not pos-
sible, copy should be clearly written. Contributions may be sigr.ed with a
"nom de plume." but all articles must bear the name and address of the
sender, which wUl be treated with the strictest conndence. The Editos
will also be pleased to consider photographs of oincers and of interesting
•merits. Litters should be addressed to the Erircs.
S.\N FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT
Hall of Justice. Kearny and Washington Streets
Telephones SUtter 1-2020- 1-2030
Radio Short Wave Call KGPD
Mayor, Hon. Elmer E. Robinson
BOARD OF POLICE COMMISSIONERS
Regular Meetings, Tuesday, 8:00 p. m Hall of Justice
J. Wamock Walsh, President 160 Montgomery Street
Henr>- C. Maginn 315 Montgomery Street
Washington I. Kohnke 686 Sacramento Street
Deputy Chief Michael Gaffey, Secretary
Room 104, Hall of Justice
CHIEF OF POLICE Mich.^el E. I. Mitchell
DEPUTY CHIEF OF POLICE J.ames L. Qligley
Dept. Sec"v..-.C.\pt.\in- Mich.\el F. Fitzp.\trick... .Hall of Justice
District Captains
CENTR.M. Edward Donahue 65 5 Wasbington S'.rest
SoLTHERN" A. I. O'Brien Fourth and Gara Scrects
Mission Joseph Walsh 1057 17th Street
Northern. Jack Eker. 841 EU-S Street
G. G. Park Leo Tackney Stanyan opp. Wal'er
Richmond George M. He.\ly 451 Sixth Ave.
Ingleside-.-Michael Gaffey.. ..Balboa Park, No. San Jose Ave.
Taraval John J. W.\de 2348 24th Avenue
PoTRERO John Sullivan 2J00 Third Street
City Prison Bern.\rd J. McDonald.. .r. Hall of Justice
Traffic Blre.\u Michael Riordan 6J5 Washington St.
Bur. Inspectors James L. English Hall of Justice
Supervising Captain
of Districts Alex.\nder McDaniell Hall of Justice
Director - Bureau of
Personnel Lt. John A. Engler. Hall of Justice
Director - Bureau of
Specl-u, Services Lt. Al\in J. Nicolini Hall of Justice
Director of
Juvenile Bure.\u John Meehan 2745 Greenwich St.
Director - Bureau of Criminal
Inform.ation George Hippely Hall of Justice
Property Clerk....Capt. Patrick J. Murray.. ..Hall of Justice
Insp. of Schools Traffic Control.. ..Insp. Byron Getchell
Director of
Criminology Francis X. Latulipe Hall of Justice
When In Trouble Call SUtter hZO-ZO
When In Doubt
.\lwavs At Your Service
Page 2
POLICE AND PEACE OFFICERS' JOURNAL
March, i948
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(Established 19Ti)
A Police News
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Magazine
'Trade Maik Copynghu
Vol. XXIII
MARCH, 1948
No. 11
FCC Hears From Peace Officers
Commissioner Donald S. Leonard, of Michigan State Police appears before Commission
The following is a copy of the testimony of Commis-
sioner Donald S. Leonard of the Michigan State Police
and a past president of the International Association of
Chiefs of Police, given at a hearing before the Federal
Communications Commission in Washington, D. C. The
hearing was held on the allocation of frequencies for
two-way radio in which law enforcement is most vitally
interested, because the entrance into this field by com-
mercial interests is posing a grave problem, and the peace
officers who have pioneered the use of this most modern
method of communications can see that channels necessary
to transmit information to their members in cases of emer-
gencies or in their combat with crime are in danger of
being seriously handicapped. Commissioner Leonard in
the following gives a very graphic picture of the situation.
— The Editor.
The Witness: My name is Donald S. Leonard, Com-
missioner of the Michigan State Police, Chairman of the
Communications Committee of the International Associa-
tion of the Chiefs of Police: Chairman of the Communica-
tions Committee of the State Police of the I. A. C. P.,
one of the sponsors of the Radio Technical Planning Board
through the I. A. C. P. membership, and a member of
Committee I of Panel 13 of R. T. P. B.
At the outset, I would like to say that we realize the
normal laws of supply and demand do not apply to this
situation. When you have increased demand and limited
supply there are very few solutions unless you can increase
the supply. If the supply is not increasable then the only
practical solution that can be worked out is either to cur-
tail the demand or ration the supply of it, and we are
fully appreciative of that condition which confronts the
Commission.
Mr. Justice Cordova once stated: "When confronted
with two objects of desire, both of which you cannot have,
you must of necessity choose between them."
I do not think it necessary to call the Commission's
attention to the rather simple and elementary facts that
there are in the field of communications, many, many
desirable objectives, all of which are not possible of at-
tainment insofar as the efforts of the Commission and the
various services under its jurisdiction are concerned.
If, then, the only alternative is to choose between them,
this decision must be a function of the Commission rather
than a prerogative of services competing with one another
for Channel space.
We, in the police service, are most sympathetic with
the complexity of the problem confronting the Commis-
sion. We are also appreciative of the generally cooperative
attitude of the members of the Commission in protecting
the public service facilities from the ever-increasing as-
saults of profit-inspired commercial services. Nor do we
criticize those services for seeking to further their own
interests which, in most instances, not only reflect profit
to the service but value to the public itself.
We in the public police service regret that safeguards
to our service must be maintained at times at the sacrifice
of curtailing the efficiency or development of other desir-
able but less needed services. But we are not responsible
for the unenviable position in which we find ourselves,
nor can we escape the fact that representatives of police
departments throughout the country are being continually
summoned to Washington to defend a service whose sole
function is to safeguard the life and property of our
people.
Personally, I h.ive been appearing before the Commis-
sion and its predecessor, the Federal Radio Commission,
for the past 20 years. Other police representatives have
been in the same position.
In most of these hearings the police services have had
to fight not alone for development and expansion but for
the very existence of this vital service.
This game of chess should not go on forever. There
must be some stabilizing decisions upon which the course
of the future may be planned.
Now, we in the service of the State and local govern-
ments, charged as we are with the responsibility of the
chief objective for which government, itself, came into
being — protection of life and property — cannot be placed
in the position of bartering with commercial interests.
We have no authority to surrender governmental interests.
After all, it must be borne in mind there are 3,000 land
stations and 2^,000 mobile stations in the United States.
We respectfully request to call your attention to the
Page 4
POLICE AND PEACE OFFICERS- JOURNAL
March, 1948
fact that millions of dollars spent in the purchase of
municipal and State police radio units throughout the
country is an investment of poUce funds which in most
instances were raised in communities operating under ver>-
definite tax limitations. There are no profits resulting
from the operations of police radio, except in the form
of service to the public itself.
Frankly, it is at the least disconcerting, tiring, and
maybe needless for police ser\'ices to give repetitious testi-
mony and statements merely for the purpose of justif>Tng
the importance of our service in comparison to others.
We feel that the Commission, in addition to determin-
ing the merits of this controversy with respect to alloca-
tion of frequencies, should make a determination of rela-
tive standing of the services with respect to the overall
needs of the services in the public interest. That is the
duty of the Commission. It is only to be expected that
each service evaluates itself as most important in the public
interest. Basically, we would all be better off if the Com-
mission, itself, evaluated the various services from the
standpoint of the public need.
We would like to know where we stand. If the Com-
mission feels that television should receive top priority'
and the public safety' services be given secondary consid-
eration, then, if you please, let is be forthright enough
to say so. This, then, would resolve our allocation problem
into relatively simple ones.
If, as the television people have asserted on the record
this morning, it is of greater import to the public to have
televised broadcast of such a momentous occasion as the
Hughes investigation, the moving picture investigation, and
other Congressional hearings, when there are many who
question the propriety of such broadcasts on the same
grounds as the American Bar Association has condemned
the public broadcasting of criminal trials — if, as tele\nsion
suggested today, that additional channels are so vitally
important to the welfare of this nation that there must be
provision for broadcasting in foreign languages to Ameri-
cans of foreign tongue in our metropolitan areas at a
time when they should be as soon as possible assimilated
to our speech habits and philosophies; if the Federal
Communications Commission believes that such broadcast-
ing service the public to a greater and more necessary
extent than the emergency services which dispatch police
fire, and emergency vehicles and services, then let it make
a decision along this line.
But if the Federal Communications Commission feels
that the dti::en being held up at pistol point; the house-
wife attempting to repel a rapist or more concerned in
the prompt service of poUce and the e£Bciency of their
service than they are in some of the refinements of public
entertainment programs, then let that recognition be made
by the Commission.
I have a tender feeling in my heart for the members of
the Commission. You have an extremely difficult task.
While you would like to accommodate the many services
which have a legitimate need for frequencies, you are
limited in jurisdiction and your action is circumscribed by
another federal agency. I refer to the Interdepartmental
Radio Advisory Committee of the Federal Government.
This committee has been set up to allocate radio space to
the federal agencies. It is an advisory committee to the
President of the United States who, acting upon its recom-
mendations, determines the amount of space to be set
aside for Federal Governmental purposes.
The F. C. C. take what is left and tries its best to
satisfy the needs of the important — but nevertheless the so
classified — non-governmental services.
All of us under the jurisdiction of the Federal Com-
munications Commission are having a most trying time to
nourish and develop our bodies when the only food we
have consists of the crumbs from the IRAC banquet table.
We in the so-called non- governmental services not only
have to meet every demand in justifying an original as-
signment of frequencies, but must show that the ones we
have are utilized to the fullest extent and in many in-
stances, on a sharing basis where interference is inevitable.
And while thus engaged, IRAC — with 50 per cent of
the entire spectrum — feels that it is not obliged to justify
their assignments or use of the spectrum. This might be
true in a limited sense insofar as actual military needs are
concerned, but by no means should it apply by any
stretch of the federal imagination so as to justify them in
failing to account for the utilization of frequencies they
now hold.
There are some of us who think that many IRAC
channels should be and could be released outright to this
Commission now for assignment to non-governmental serv-
ices, or at least be placed on a sharing basis.
I see in the future if there is not a remedy to this situa-
tion a clash of conflicting federal and State interests. It
also is inevitable. There are some solutions that might be
proposed. Either this Commission must recognize the |
equal importance of State and local governments so that
their needs are fully protected as the requirements of the
IRAC groups, or State and local governments will have
to be recognized by the Federal Government as a part of
IRAC so that our needs may be considered on a parity
v«th theirs, so that we may bask in the same warm sun
that they do.
Or, all of the non-governmental services — and I will say
all in this room and the other non-government services,
and the police, and State and local governments, are classi-
fied by the Federal Government as nongovernment —
should join forces, descend upon the Congress of the
United States and demand an amendment to the Com-
munications Act of 1954 which \yi\\ broaden the control
which the Federal Communications Commission will have
over many of those frequencies now under the control of
the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee.
I, for one, feel it is time for us to discontinue pursuing
the shadow while the substance is allowed to escape.
CENTRAL TIRE SERVICE
Kellof 3-0404
2400 E. 1 4th Street. Oakland 1. Calif.
RECAPPING - BATTERIES - ACCESSORIES
V. A. I..abarge
March, 1948
POLICE AND PEACE OFFICERS" JOURNAL
Page y
Sheriff Devitt of Santa Cruz County
Santa Cruz County the vacation mecca of the northern
portion of the state, otfering as it does the finest of ever>'
attraction for vacationeers in both mountain camps and
ocean beach pleasures, has grown as have other areas of
Cahfomia, since the late war.
Too, the county is noted for its farming, for in its con-
fines there grow great apple orchards producing train
Sheriff J, R. Devitt
loads of this fine fruit. Vegetables and other fruits abound,
and when it comes to floriculture Santa Cruz takes second
place to no other county.
Naturally with the good people who come to enjoy
annual outings and week-end trips, and many who have
settled in the county there is a small percentage of the
newcomers bent on criminal efforts. However this ele-
ment has not met with any great success for the law en-
forcement ofiicers are well able to cope with their attempted
deprecations. Sure there is crime going on, more than
before the war, but not in proportion to the increase in
population. This crime is confined mostly to petty thefts,
house breaking and an occasional hold up. But if one
traces the records of the Sheriff's ofiice or the Police
Departments of the county one will find most of these
crimes have been cleared by arrests, conviction and im-
prisonment of the offenders.
Santa Cruz has as its Sheriff a man born within its
confines. He is J. R. Devitt, who first saw the light of
day at Felton, the bustling mountain community some
ten miles out of the city. After getting his education
he entered the engineering department of the count>'
in 19n remaining in that work until 1928 when he be-
came a deputy sheriff and served as such until 1931 when
a new sheriff was elected. Deputy Devitt went out with
his boss, and returned to the engineering department.
Four years later, having demonstrated his ability as
a law enforcement officer, he was persuaded to run for
the office of Sheriff and he beat the incumbent and has
been reelected ever since each four years.
When he took over the duties of the chief law enforce-
ment officer of his native county he had but five men.
Today he has 9. He has seen the population grow since
1935 from 35,000 to an estimated 75,000, yet with his
undermanned force of deputies he has done a mighty fine
job of enforcing the laws.
He has as undersheriff W. A. Hendricks an outstanding
officer. Three men are detailed to criminal work they being
Deputies L. F. Ramsey, Jerry Smith and Thomas Glass.
Deputy Robert Mondelle, Jr., is the court bailiff.
Deputy M. D. Worth handles the civil business.
Deputy J. D. Kenney and his wife, Opal, are the jailors,
occupying quarters in the courthouse annex.
The Sheriff maintains a patrol, the men assigned to
this detail in two-way radio equipped cars are H. D.
Haight and Warren Berrut.
Stanley Wightman is the file clerk.
Mrs. Alice Von Linden, a capable office worker, handles
the book work.
Deputy A. J. Skelton helps out with the jailor job.
There are five radio equipped cars assigned to the Sher-
iff's office and the call letters arc KGDT serviced by the
Santa Cruz Police Department.
The Identification Bureau as well as the filing system
used by Sheriff Devitt is up to date and was installed
by the FBI.
Sheriff Devitt was married in 1922 to Olga Fryklunde,
a nurse from the Black Hills of North Dakota. Dining
World War I he served in the nav>'. ''^feW
Santa Cruz County has a retirement pension for its
employees and it appears to us that Sheriff Devitt does
not have to go many years more to earn his, for he is now
rounding out 3 3 years in the service of this commonwealth
noted as the playground of northern California, and which
attracts thousands of people from all sections of the state
and other states of the Union.
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A FRIEND OF ALL PEACE OFFICERS
McFARLAND. CALIFORNIA
Page 6
POLICE AND PEACE OFFICERS' JOURNAL
March, 1948
Under Able, Alert Guidance of Chief of Police Robert P. Tracy,
Oakland Stands Out In Nation Where Crime Prevention,
Juvenile Delinquency Stand Foremost In Prosressive Prosram.
By B. S. (Sandy) Sanders
Veteran Police Reporter, Editor, V/riter.
Oakland's police department, now comprising 706 of-
ficers, continues to stand out as one of the most ably con-
ducted in the nation.
Chief of Police Robert P. (Bob) Tracy is rounding-out
his fifth year as head of the department.
Chief Robert T. Tracy talking things over with Officer Paul A.
Jones, in charge of Juvenile and Missing Persons Bureau.
Under his able, understanding, capable guidance, the
department has kept pace with the city's tremendous
population growth in giving citizens proper police pro-
tection, in holding down traffic fatalities, in crime preven-
tion activities, in tackHng the juvenile delinquency prob-
lem where crime usually starts, in a broad, vigorous way.
Let's look at a few statistics:
The population of Oakland in 1940 was 316,000.
In 1947, covering the war period with hundreds of
thousands of new comers, shipyard and industrial workers,
army and navy personnel, it conservatively rose to
425,000. This population is still expanding.
Justice Building In Making
To meet this expansion of growth in population, ex-
pansion of a police personnel, regular officers of 432 in
1940 to 706 in 1947; taxpayers and voters have voted
$2,700,000 for a Justice Building, housing police and
municipal courts — the three police courts.
Looking ahead, experts, according to Chief Tracy, have
figured that Oakland will have a population of 600,000
or more in the 64-square miles under the jurisdiction of
the police depactment in the next few years.
"It is to look ahead and meet this need for an expand-
ing city and an expanding Police Department that we
are bending our efforts today to keep crime in check, to
solve crimes, to bring into the department only the finest
young men who plan to make police work their career,"
says Chief Tracy.
Juvenile Delinquency
"And we have, as a preliminary step, today inaugurated
a more intensive program for the control of juvenile de-
linquency and crime prevention — a program that got a
good start in 1947. By the time our new building is
ready for occupancy we will have a juvenile department
unexcelled in the nation. Crime usually starts with the
Vv'ayward boys and girls, the delinquents at school, the
product of broken homes.
' Junior Baseball League
"It is encouraging to know that under the direction of
Officer Paul A, Jones, in charge of the juvenile and miss-
ing persons bureau, juvenile delinquency in the past year
has shown a decrease. We are mighty proud of that
record. Officer Jones is doing a good, capable, worth-
As an essential part of the police program to keep the
youngsters, under 16 years of age, off the streets, junior
baseball leagues, under the direction of the various dis-
trict Captains have been organized.
"When a youngster has a place to play baseball he's
not interested in other activities much," comments Chief
Tracy. "In this baseball league movement we are co-
(Continned on page 70)
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