![]() ![]() Patrolman Harry Heise is shown on traffic duty at the downtown intersection of Fourth and Broadway. By 1920 the City of San Diego had installed its first traffic signals. The building is still used today by the Navy Shore Patrol. Ida Griffith, stands between Officer Paul Plaisted, on her left, and Officer Pat Oviatt on the sidewalk outside the old city jail on Second Street about 1917. In the newspaper engraving above the hearse carrying his body is shown escorted by a detachment of brother officers. He was shot to death at Fifth and G Streets on August 28, 1913. Campbell was the first San Diego policeman on record to die from duty-related causes. ![]() About twenty other officers are not shown as they were busy keeping the peace elsewhere in the city. The two women in one touring car are the regular matron and her substitute. The elite, the detectives, sit in two touring cars, one a Model T Ford and the other a Reo. Keno Wilson sits astride a horse at the far right. These are the main controls at police headquarters which registered when foot officers pulled a hook on a call box while making their rounds. The central police station in 1913 was equipped with an “up to date” Gamewell Police Alarm System and call boxes costing $16,000. For this act he was later invited by Police Chief J. During the 1912 IWW rioting, Hopkins, then a civilian, had given a policeman aid. Hopkins stands beside his belt driven “Excelsor Auto-Cycle.” He was killed in 1915 while riding this cycle. Freshour poses about 1915 on his Excelsor cycle, belt drive with Presto Lite lamp. During that same year (1912) San Diego police dealt with rioting members of the International Workers of the World or “Wobblies.” The San Diego Police partial budget for the year 1912. The motorcycle squad of the San Diego Police about 1910. The officer obviously has little to do and no need for traffic signals. Most of the vehicle traffic is horsedrawn but a few of the early runabouts are shown to the left of the on-duty policeman. The scene is Fifth and E Streets looking north. These men with their domed hats and walrus moustaches had the cooperation and respect of most of the 17,700 people in the city at that time. He brought the first presses of the San Diego Union to town, sold out in 1873 and became sheriff in 1882. The entire police department posed in front of San Diego City Hall in 1901. The City Jail is barely visible in the background to the left. Keno Wilson, tenth man to head the department, proudly “stands tall” on his mount, sixth from left, in this 1915 photograph taken in front of the station at 732 Second Street. They were sons of Deputy Sheriff Andy Elliott, pioneer lawman of Imperial County. His brother, James, was also in the department. Mounted Patrolman Fred Elliott of the San Diego Police sits on his mount in this excellent 1908 photograph. Police records however claim that Thomas O’Rourke, who died in 1888 (a year before the official police department came into being) was the first “policeman. The elderly man in the photograph to the left called himself Chief Gonzales and claimed to be San Diego’s first policeman. Von Den Berg was the first police officer to receive the title of “detective.” Photographed in front of the Second Street police station about 1906 is Harry Von Den Berg (large man at center) and fellow companions. Deputy City Marshals prior to the newly formed San Diego Police Department included, left to right, Fred Mills, Carl Schneider, A.F. A well-known early peace officer was George R. George Salladay, one of San Diego’s first Deputy City Marshals. (Correction: As noted since the publication of this article, this is actually a photograph of police officer Thomas O’Rourke.) Records indicate he named eleven men for field officers and a city jailer, all of whom had been serving under him as deputy marshals. Marshal Joseph Coyne was serving as City Marshal when appointed Chief. The above photograph of San Diego Deputy City Marshals was taken prior to the formation of a city police force under a “Freeholder’s Charter.” Only two of the men shown here were still on the police department’s assignment sheet for October 1889, four months after Marshal Joseph Coyne (below) was made San Diego’s first Chief of Police. ![]()
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