Sunset (magazine)/Volume 31/Chief of Police of "Spotless Town"
Chief of Police of "Spotless Town"
ACCORDING to the Board of Geographic Names, "Spotless Town" is not on the map. And yet the entire Pacific Coast is applying this pleasing nickname to the University city of California which preserves the memory of Bishop Berkeley and his prophetic line, "Westward the Star of Empire takes its way." Reference to the Berkeley census of 1910 will show that there were within its gates 40,434 rich men, some poor men, but seldom a beggar man or thief. And the reason why the latter undesirables have given Berkeley a wide berth is not due to its estimable doctors, lawyers or merchants, but to its Chief, Gus Vollmer. Through his efforts the municipality has been cleaned up until evil weeds, vegetable and human, have no place in its precincts. In 1905, when the population was 25,000, property to the value of $21,780 was stolen from the good citizens of Berkeley. Now that the population in 1912 has doubled, the average loss through theft is only about $12,000 a year, a proportion of about one fourth per capita of the former amount.
Gus Vollmer grew up with the college town. Although six feet, plus, with dignity to match his commanding stature, he still answers to his boyhood name. He is an intuitive reader of character.
Vollmer won his spurs in the quelling of the Philippine Insurrection. Early in the outbreak, the Gugu guerrillas had been having a gay bit of glory in sniping the Americanos along the Pasig river. Vollmer was detailed with a platoon of artillerymen to break up their game. Commandeering a scow, he installed improvised machinery upon it and sheathed its sides with iron.
Gus Vollmer, Chief of Police of Berkeley, California. He grew up with the college town, and has made a record for vigorous methods in ridding it of all evil growth, vegetable and human
With a handful of dare-devils manning rapid-fire guns, he cruised up and down the river scaring and scattering the bushwhackers until he had completely pacified the pirates of the Pasig.
Shortly after his return from the wars he was given charge of the police department of Berkeley. The city was growing rapidly, new tracts were spreading all over the map, and as a consequence the slender force of police was unable to patrol the entire territory. Vollmer mounted his men on bicycles, which enabled them to come swiftly and silently wherever they were needed. He next arranged a system of signals whereby he could communicate with his patrolmen at a moment's notice. By touching a switch, an electric current flowing through wires in various districts flashed red signals at the intersections of certain streets, and when they winked their warnings the officer on that particular beat would catch this high sign and rush to the nearest police-telephone-box, where he would receive his instructions. This installation has proven to be such a signal success that many other municipalities have since adopted its features.
Vollmer transformed his offices into a technical laboratory where he and his subordinates studied every phase of criminology, specializing upon the evolution of systems of identification.
All the data obtainable upon the means of identifying criminals he has cross-indexed in a system of filing-cabinets. In other indices are the records of all articles sold to pawnbrokers in the western cities, by which means he is enabled to trace stolen goods to their more or less innocent purchasers, and thereby he secures their return. Between one-third and one-half of the loot that is pilfered from Berkeleyans is restored to its owners by this systematic method of conducting searches for its recovery.
Vollmer's most successful work has been in deterring crime by treating those who come under his custody as patients to be cured, not cursed with the stigma of stripes. Many a young man who is now leading a clean and honorable life blesses “Golden Rule Gus” for his practical help.
Here is one illustration of the way the Chief of “Spotless Town” combines science, efficiency and humanity in the practice of his profession. An ex-convict who was released from San Quentin prison a few months ago came to Berkeley to begin a new life, and engaged in the occupation of a huckster. Wearied with the plodding of a long laborious day, he slept for seven hours in his lonely room, unmindful of the fact that a bandit had held up three trolley cars near his new home. Vollmer's men joined in the hunt and when the carmen described the appearance of the desperado they turned to the almost infallible card index and traced the scent to the unlucky ex-convict. They got their man and found he could not prove an alibi. The conductors and motormen “positively identified” the huckster as the “hold-up man.” He was arraigned for the crime, and the prospect of prison walls for life seemed certain. But Vollmer felt intuitively that his department had committed a cruel error. Although the direct evidence was deemed conclusive, he busied himself looking for other clews. On the night of the robbery a boat disappeared from its moorings on the Berkeley waterfront. Later it was found on the San Francisco shore and in it lay a razor on which were blonde hairs. These faint traces convinced Vollmer that the person who stole the boat with which to cross the bay had a good reason for getting out of Berkeley's back door instead of leaving it on the brilliantly-lighted electric trains. He followed up this clew until a few weeks later a midnight thug who held up a San Francisco car was shot and killed by the metropolitan police. His hair matched the wisps on the razor as exactly as other evidence proved him to be the real criminal. Finally, the Berkeley carmen identified the dead bandit as the man who had robbed them, and the innocent man was freed. Vollmer had on his own account engaged a lawyer to defend the man who had been unjustly accused of crime, so confident was he in his innocence.
“Big Brother” Gus is the term of endearment applied to this charitable Chief by the boys of Berkeley because of his successful policy of dealing with juvenile offenders. When they fall into his hands, after committing some such offenses against the propertied classes as “swiping fruit” and other mischievous misdemeanors, he first communicates with their folks, and then, instead of putting them in jail where they would be exposed to contaminating influences, he puts them on their honor to amply atone for their wrong-doing, or in extreme cases he exercises the right of eminent domain, in loco parentis, and ap plies salutary spankings. As a result, these minor offenses have become so infrequent that now it’s a long time between spankings.
“Spotless Town” was appropriately applied to Berkeley about a year ago, when the Chief and his men carried on a crusade against weeds and unsightly litter, requiring property owners to clean up their premises, and giving the city the appearance of neatness that has not since worn off.
“Golden Rule Gus” bears an enviable record for nerve. On numerous occasions he has appeared as though led by intuition upon the scene of some near-tragedy, and has captured desperate criminals just in time to prevent their committing murder or great bodily violence. If any one is injured, it is almost always the Chief that rushes first to the aid of the stricken one. Even on his vacation trips Vollmer is a champion life-saver. Having saved two girls from drowning in the Russian river during the summer of 1907, he was impelled by fate to repeat history for a third time in the same place, three years later. The third girl, Miss Lydia Sturtevant, whom he saved from drowning proved the charm, for she became his bride.