SOURCE - http://cpl.lib.uic.edu/004chicago/timeline/policedept.html ===================== Chicago Historical Information _________________________________________________________________ BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT In the early days of Chicago, the persons living in the area relied for protection upon the soldiers stationed at Fort Dearborn. When, by 1831, the population of the settlement had reached 350, the settlers decided to vote for incorporation as a town and elected their first Board of Trustees on August 10, 1833. Under this board, the first jail, a log house, was constructed. Although some ordinances to maintain order were passed, no record exists of any early peacekeeping force. When the town became a city in 1837, provision was made for the election of a High Constable and the appointment by the Common Council of one constable from each of the city's six wards. The size of the police force increased slowly, for by 1850, it still only consisted of nine men. Dr. Levi D. Boone was elected mayor of Chicago in March of 1855 as the candidate of the American or "know-nothing" party and the new council quickly passed ordinances which provided for the creation of a police department with a force of eighty to ninety men. Policemen had to be native-born, and this in spite of the fact that half of the population was foreign-born. As the nativist fervor of 1855 died down, changes again took place within the police department. The city was divided into three police precincts, with a station house in each precinct. Station No. 1 was located in a building on State Street between Lake and Randolph Streets; No. 2 was on West Randolph near DesPlaines Street; and No. 3 was on Michigan near Clark Street. The state legislature passed in 1861 a law which set up a police board as an executive department of the City of Chicago. This law placed sole authority over the department in the hands of the three new police commissioners and effectively deprived the mayor of the power to interfere in the control of the police force. At this time the title of superintendent of police was first used to designate the head of the department. Charges of police corruption in the late 1860's and 1870's convinced the 1875 Illinois state legislature to revise the 1861 law. The board of police commissioners was abolished and provision was made instead for a single police commissioner to be appointed by the mayor with the approval of the council. The city council then passed an ordinance which established the office of city marshall, an individual whose responsibilities were to be those previously shouldered by the board of commissioners. In 1913 the council passed another reorganization ordinance which proclaimed that the superintendent, captains, lieutenants, sergeants and patrolmen should all be known as "policemen" and would therefore comprise the "police force" of the city. The "Summerdale Scandals" of 1960 brought about a massive reorganization of the police department. Mayor Richard J. Daley appointed a committee to recommend new methods to improve the department and to select someone to serve as police superintendent. As head of that committee he designated Orlando W. Wilson, professor of police administration and Dean of the School of Criminology, University of California. The committee recommended the establishment of a five-member police board. Duties of the police board include the nomination of candidates for the vacant position of superintendent, the adoption of rules and regulations governing the department, the preparation and submission to the city council of the annual budget request, the hearing of and passing upon all recommendations for disciplinary action calling for dismissal or suspension for more than thirty days. When these recommendations were agreed upon by the state legislature and passed into state law, the power that was specifically denied the police board was the authority to administer or to direct the operations of the police department. These functions were to remain the responsibilities of the superintendent of police. Mr. Wilson was unanimously nominated by his fellow committee members for the position of superintendent, where he served for seven years and implemented many of the changes he had earlier recommended. As the population of the city increased and demands upon the police force followed suit, the department responded with internal revisions. The early force consisted of men who walked a beat, patrolmen. They were responsible for maintaining order and preventing crime, a basic concern of a new and growing community. As an answer to the increasing problem of unsolved crimes, the department in 1860 created its first Detective Force. Although the size of this force was small, the department promoted only its finest officers to it and such an appointment was considered an honor to which the patrolmen could aspire. This basic split between patrol and detective divisions in the police force is still noticeable today. Advances in technology precipitated the establishment in 1861 of the Police Patrol and Signal Service. In order to respond quickly to the alarms generated by the new call boxes, there was stationed at each precinct house a patrol wagon manned by police officers. Since these men had to respond to calls resulting from a variety of problems, they had to serve as medical attendants and ambulance drivers, arbiters of family disputes, apprehenders of thieves as well as aid those foot patrolmen who did not have the advantage of speedy transportation. Women were first employed by the department as police matrons charged with handling female prisoners. The assignment of two matrons to each of the precinct stations as of April 30, 1885, was brought about by increasing concern over the propriety of male officers attending to female prisoners. During 1954 women crossing guards were first assigned to replace policemen at school crossings, a move which was made to free men for other duties. Female officers are now fully integrated into the police force. The identification Bureau was set up in 1884 and the department soon boasted of the fineness of its "Rogues' Gallery." The Bertillon system of identification was used - a cumbersome method which required many exact physical measurements of arrested persons. In 1905 fingerprinting was introduced into the department but it had overcome substantial initial opposition in the department by 1910, when the Illinois Supreme Court upheld fingerprints as admissible evidence. Various other bureaus within the department were organized as demand dictated. The Murder Bureau, established in 1905, made extensive use of photography with the assignment of photographers to aid in the solution of crimes. The Records Bureau maintained a record of pawnshop holdings and matched reported thefts against lists of newly pawned goods. Growing consciousness of problems of juvenile delinquency prompted the assignment in 1917 of juvenile officers to precinct stations. Their responsibilities so expanded in scope that a separate bureau, the Juvenile Crime Bureau, was set up in 1946 to handle those growing problems. Twentieth-century traffic control presented difficulties as the combination of motorized horse power and increased motor vehicle registration brought an all-time traffic death toll of 986 in 1934. That year nine accident prevention cars were assigned to the Accident Prevention Bureau. This was the beginning of a program that through the years would effect a reduction in the number of traffic deaths even though motor vehicle registrations continued to increase. With the establishment of the Scientific Crime Laboratory in August of 1938, a scientific approach to crime detection was officially sanctioned. Located in the police headquarters building, the unit today operates on a round-the-clock basis. Mobile units as well as microscopy, document, chemistry and spectographic laboratories have since been added. The first official Public Relations director was appointed on June 18, 1956. His responsibility was to keep Chicagoans informed about the functions and activities of the department. Uniforms changed through the years as well. Early Chicago police officers were designated by leather badges, an invention of Mayor John Wentworth. Officers carried heavy canes as batons and signaled for assistance with a device known as a "creaker" which was later replaced by the police whistle. In 1858 the first uniform was adopted; it included a short blue frock coat, a blue navy cap with gold band and a plain brass star. By 1894 changes had been made in the uniform so that various ranks of commanding officers were easily distinguishable. The leather badge was in use from 1860 to 1862 when it was replaced by a silver star. Badges were used by force of city ordinance from 1889 to 1904. In that year, a star imprinted with the city seal and a number was put into use and today's star, except for its smaller size, is quite similar. New recruits to the police department in the mid-1800's were given a piece of cloth and told to have their uniforms made; today's officers receive an annual uniform allowance. Specific uniforms for women were first designated on June 28, 1956. Early Chicago policemen walked their beats and after 1880 were reinforced by police-driven, horse-drawn patrol wagons. As the Loop area became more congested, a mounted patrol composed of forty men and horses was established in 1906. When the Traffic Division was reorganized in 1948, the mounted patrol was eliminated and the forty-one horses in the police stables at 262 East Illinois Street were auctioned off. Horses were reintroduced to the police department in July, 1974, when demand for increased police surveillance in the parks could be most easily satisfied by a mounted patrol. The first auto patrol was specially built for the police department and was officially put into use in March of 1906. In 1908 the department purchased three motor vehicles and by 1915 its ownership of fifty vehicles marked the complete motorization of the department. By 1942, thirty-nine of the department's squad cars were equipped so that they could be converted to emergency ambulances. In 1947, these squad cars were replaced by a combination ambulance and prisonerwagon called a squadrol. The discovery and development of new methods of communication have contributed significantly to the changes made within the police department over the years. Early foot patrolmen walking a beat were really on their own: they could get help only by running back to their precinct station, which, as the city increased in size, could be quite a distance away. The Police Patrol and Signal Service, originated in 1881, alleviated some of these problems. Booths with direct telephone communication to the stations were set up around the city and officers and residents of the neighborhood were given keys to the enclosed sentry boxes. Patrol wagons waiting at the stations would be ready to respond to any calls. There was much initial opposition to this method because officers feared that they could now be held accountable for their time on duty. In time the signal devices were accepted and a revised device, the call box, is still in use today. The adoption of these sentry boxes marked the end of the extreme isolation of the patrolman and the beginning of a more centralized approach to police work. In 1929 the police department collaborated with the Chicago Tribune and installed one-way radio transmitters in five squad cars. Broadcasts were initially made over WGN, the Tribune-owned radio station. Because of the initial success of the program, the department's own radio broadcasting system was set up in 1930. Calls to the department were received at and dispatched to patrolling squad cars from police headquarters. Further centralization took place in 1932 with a consolidation of switchboards so that call-box queries were received at the six divisional headquarters instead of at each station. (A departmental order dated September 25, 1921, changed the name of police stations from precinct to district stations.) By 1942 all squad cars were equipped with two-way radios. In 1952, as the newly developed "walkie-talkie" telephone was gaining professional acceptance, the department instituted two-way car-to-car communication. On June 9, 1952, a point-to-point telephone system was begun which permitted contact with nearby suburban, county and state police. Equipment permitting telephoto transmission of information was installed in the Bureau of Identification in 1957. This made possible the transmission of complete messages consisting of photographs, fingerprints and other pertinent data to police departments having similar equipment. The system will adapt to radio transmission in case of telephone line failure. The installation of the new Communications Center in 1960 succeeded in revamping the department's earlier communications techniques. Now the dispatchers in Central Headquarters have all the advantages of sophisticated equipment as they work to coordinate police response to citizen calls. The City Council, on November 9, 1885, established by ordinance two-new awards, the Lambert Tree Award and the Carter H. Harrison Gold Medal, which were to be awarded to members of the police and fire departments who distinguished themselves in the protection of life and property. Selected annually by the Chicago Civil Service Commission, the recipients are honored in the autumn. Recognition should be made of the risk taken by members of the police force, for from 1875 to December, 1991, 369 had been killed in the line of duty. From a decentralized force operating out of three precinct stations to a highly centralized (under O. W. Wilson) department, the Chicago Police Department has grown considerably in size and in its use of modern techniques. From its early days with 3 precinct stations, the department had as many as forty-one separate districts before Mr. Wilson's tenure as police superintendent, a number which he cut back to twenty-one. Under Superintendent James M. Rochford, the department has begun to increase the number of police districts in order to improve police service to individual communities. Superintendent Wilson moved his own offices, which had been located in City Hall, to the police headquarters. This building, located at 11th and State Streets, was dedicated on March 5, 1963. It encompasses the old thirteen-story headquarters built around 1930, a new connecting building and a former garage. Today, Superintendent Rodriquez oversees a force of over 13,000 officers, and a new state-of-the-art 911 is nearing completion. Last Updated: 8/97 A Chronological History of Chicago: 1673- Compiled by Chicago Municipal Reference Library, City of Chicago Updated by Municipal Reference Collection, Chicago Public Library _________________________________________________________________ [IMAGE] Click Here to Return to Chicago Information [IMAGE] Click Here to Return to the CPL Home Page