A Snapshot in Time: Communication and Patrol Field Work with the Philadelphia Police Bureau, 1924

• In Event: Poster Session II

Abstract

This study focuses on the use of motor vehicles, radios, and recall systems (or lack thereof) used by Philadelphia police officers patrolling beats in the field in early 1924. After World War I, many police departments faced reforms and professionalization efforts, including borrowing military technology such as updated uniforms, armored cars, and the introduction of new weapons like tear gas batons (see Schmidt, 1987). Radio communications and new signal systems were being pilot-tested, but many Philadelphia police officers were not able to maintain constant communication with their commanding officers and district headquarters between check-ins during this time. The Director of Public Safety, Marine General Smedley Darlington Butler, often reprimanded officers for spending too much time in district station houses, including the practice of returning to the station house at the start and end of each shift rather than relieving one another on the patrol beat to ensure that the district was sufficiently covered. These changes were all happening in a time where banditry and bootlegger-associated violent crime was a major concern in the public eye and Philadelphia was making national headlines as Director Butler shook things up with this police force (Baldwin, 1960).

Author

• Chelsey Donohoe, Temple University