PAX Centurion - November / December 2015

Page 22 • PAX CENTURION • November/December 2015 617-989-BPPA (2772) The Boston Police Department – the early years By P.O. Robert E. Anthony, BPPA Historian O n May 26, 1854, the Boston Police Department was reorga- nized and consolidated into one force, where the “Watch- men” and the Day Police force were merged into what is now called the Boston Police Department as the “Department” name was added. On January 1, 1850, the “Watch” numbered 225 men and the Boston Police force numbered 60. When the watch was abolished the members were absorbed into the police ranks. the population of the City in 1855 was 161,429. The Department then consisted of Captain, Lieutenants, Detectives and night and day Patrolmen. Sergeants were first appointed in 1857, and the first uniforms were issued on January 9, 1858. The officers under the last annual appointments were sworn inApril 6, 1863. It was not uncommon that Officers would work up until they were 70 years of age or older. The watchmen carried a hook and rattle and their hours in the winter months they started at 7 o’clock for 4 months 8 pm when the days got longer and at 9 o’clock in the summer months. The watch ended one hour before sunrise, and from then till 8 am when the day’s work began for the Police the city was uncovered. In the early days of 1848, there were no wagons. The watchmen would line up the prisoners that had been brought in the first of nigh and march them along the street to the county jail, down on Leverett Street. It was a very long journey for the men who were attached to the South End station on Canton Place, off of Canton Street. In the winter of 1856-1857, officers were assigned to a special detail at the prison in Charlestown. Two wardens has been assassi- nated by convicts in the space of one short week. It was considered a dangerous assignment and volunteers were asked for. Watch officers were paid $1.00 a day and police officers were paid $2.00 a day. If you made an arrest you got a 60 cents witness fee. Here is an interesting fact prior to 1853, patrolmen had to do all the fire alarming. The fire districts were divided pretty equally. There were firehouses, but the men did not sleep there and when there was a fire, the watchmen would sound the alarm and wake the firemen up. Each patrolman would have to wake all the firemen in his district. They would go to their houses and sound their rattles. In 1854, the electric fire alarms were put in, and the patrolmen did not have much to do with fires. They were issued keys to the churches on their districts, and when there was a fire they would unlock the church nearest to them and ring out the alarm for the district. When watch officers carried their watch hook it was their badge, club, pistol, and warrant. They did not have firearms unit after the war began, and the first installment was not enough to outfit all the officers. The officers also had numbers of the station on their badges and on their helmets. Everyone at the station had the same number so if you arrested someone and they asked for your number you said C aptain George King was one of the old time police; prior to 1854, and in June 1854, about two weeks after the reorganization he was appointed Captain of Station 5. He was Captain there for 12 years resigning in 1866. Since 1866 he has been in the livery stable business. It was Captain King who bought the land for the City on which Station 5 is built, and Station 5 was built very nearly as he suggested that it should be. The captain was a little deaf in one ear, but was as hale and hearty as many a man 20 years his junior, and he enjoyed a joke as thoroughly as the youngest of his family. When the Captain was a patrolman in the old “night watch” days his district was Beacon Hill. In 1854, the police and watch forces of Boston had no uniforms or firearms. The badge of office for the watch was simply the watch hook, or “hook and bilk” which had been in use since 1701. From the first settlement of Boston the town provided a constabulary force, the office conferring powers to serve both civil and criminal processes. The business was at first, however, principally of a civil nature, and was compensated by fees. Subsequently, some of the constables were selected to take charge of the watch, and others were employed on the public days and other special occasions, and later were detailed to patrol the streets, drawing their pay from the treasury when employed by the town. Although the inhabitants of Boston were at first quite numer- ous, yet not until 1631 was it ordered “by Court” that watches be set, and if “any persons, fire off a piece after the watches are set, he shall be fined 40 shillings or whipped,” and two days afterward if was said “we began a court of guard upon the neck between Roxburie and Boston, whereupon there shall always be resident an officer and six men,” thus was organized the first Boston watch. The system continued substantially the same until the reorganization of the force May 26, 1854. On September 1, 1834, the town of Boston began to take the direction of its own affairs. The police system was enlarged and better regulated, and there was a day force called the “watch” as usual. The frequent occurrence of disturbance at this time, included the fearful Broad Street Riot on June 11, 1837, when property was destroyed to the value of many thousands of dol- lars, and many lives lost, caused the passage of a law in 1838 authorizing the mayor and alderman to appoint from time to time such officers as they deemed necessary. Six days after the pas- sage of this new police law, the mayor and aldermen appointed six police officers for day’s duty. For about eight years the department experienced very little change, and at the beginning of 1848, the force numbered one marshal, one deputy marshal, sic week day and 10 Sunday ...and more from the early years of the Boston Police Department By P.O. Robert E. Anthony, BPPA Historian See More From the Early Years on page 24 See BPD-Early Years on page 23