August Vollmer: The Father of American Policing by Oliver Willard M

Author:Oliver, Willard M. [Oliver, Willard M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carolina Academic Press
Published: 2017-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

While Vollmer believed things were progressing nicely, he faced a number of issues in the first few months on the job. On the evening of August 21, 1923, several police officers found themselves in pursuit of two armed auto thieves at Pershing Square, and they opened fire on the robbers to prevent them from escaping. Unfortunately, their bullets did not hit their target, but struck a young newsboy who was hawking the evening paper on the street-corner and killed him. He was eight years old. Vollmer exonerated the officer in a statement to the press, placing the blame on the department's failure to adequately train the officers in firearms, something he intended to change. He reaffirmed, however, that “criminals who draw weapons must be shot,” and “death is the only thing they fear.” The headline that evening read, “Death to Criminals Who Shoot, Orders Vollmer.” It was not quite the image he was going after.

Vollmer also received some bad news the following month, on September 17, 1923, when he learned his beloved Berkeley was burning. Early that afternoon, a fire broke out in Wildcat Canyon. There had been no rain recently, it was hot, and the winds were racing through the canyon—perfect conditions for a fire. “With almost the rapidity of lightning,” the Oakland Tribune reported, the fire “roared down the Berkeley hills slope setting fire within five minutes to several residences in the neighborhood of Tamalpais.” It raced down the side of the Berkeley hills, traveled down Euclid Avenue and almost reached the university campus. The blaze, according to Berkeley historian Charles Wollenberg, “was more than a match for the Berkeley Fire Department, so Chief G. Sydney Rose called in help from Oakland, Richmond, Emeryville, Piedmont, and San Francisco.” Vollmer knew that like his past experience with the San Francisco Earthquake in 1906, the blaze would also be more than a match for the Berkeley Police Department as well. Despite now being the chief of Los Angles, he was greatly concerned for his police department in Berkeley, as well as for his mother, brother, sister-in-law, and niece who lived near the path of the fire. The first thing he did was to call his family, and after some difficulties getting through, he learned everyone was safe. The second thing he did was to contact his friend, Police Chief Daniel J. O'Brien at the San Francisco Police Department, to send some officers to assist in Berkeley, and the next morning 40 officers arrived. Then he called Captain Greening, who was the acting chief to let him know assistance was on the way.

Berkeley was fortunate, for there were no deaths or serious injuries from the fire, despite the fact 584 buildings were destroyed and more were significantly damaged. The total loss was estimated to be around ten million dollars and many people were displaced, including over a thousand UC Berkeley students, but the city banded together and new homes began going up early the next year—only this time they were built with stucco siding and tiled roofs rather than wooden siding and shingles.

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