August Vollmer (March 7, 1876 – November 4, 1955) was the first police chief of Berkeley, California, and a leading figure in the development of the field of criminal justice in the United States in the early 20th century. He has been described as "the father of modern policing". Vollmer played an influential role in introducing early 20th-century police reforms, which increasingly militarized police departments in the United States. A veteran of the Spanish–American War in the Philippines and the Philippine–American War, Vollmer introduced reforms that reflected his experiences in the U.S. military. fighting in numerous engagements in the Spanish–American War in the Philippines as well as taking part in occupation duties following the close of formal combat. Vollmer left the military in August 1899 and returned to Berkeley. In March 1900, he began working for the local post office.

Law enforcement

In 1904, Vollmer became a local hero when he leapt onto a runaway railroad freight car on Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley and applied its brakes, preventing a disastrous collision with a loaded passenger coach at the Berkeley station. This event led to his election as town marshal on April 10, 1905.

In 1907, Vollmer was re-elected town marshal. He was also elected president of the California Association of Police Chiefs, even though, by title, he was not yet a police chief himself. In 1909, Berkeley created the office of police chief, and Vollmer became the first to hold that office.

Drawing on his military experience, and his own research, Vollmer reorganized the Berkeley police force. Vollmer had discovered that very little literature existed in the United States on the subject of police work, so he located and read a number of European works on the subject, in particular, Criminal Psychology, by Hans Gross, an Austrian criminologist, and Memoirs of Vidocq, by Eugène François Vidocq, head of the detective division of the French police in Paris. He then set out on a program of modernization. He established a bicycle patrol and created the first centralized police records system, designed to streamline and organize criminal investigations. He established a call box network. And he trained his deputies in marksmanship.

In the ensuing years, Vollmer's reputation as the "father of modern law enforcement" grew. In 1941, he was instrumental in the establishment of what would become the American Society of Criminology, the leading professional criminological association in the world. Vollmer wrote that enforcement of moralistic vice laws leads to police corruption and "engenders disrespect both for law and for the agents of law enforcement."

  • In 2004 the Alameda County Sheriff's Office christened a new 32-foot custom patrol boat the August Vollmer.
  • In 1959 the American Society of Criminology established the August Vollmer Award to recognize an individual whose scholarship or professional activities have made outstanding contributions to justice or to the treatment or prevention of criminal or delinquent behavior.
  • In the Nero Wolfe detective stories created by Rex Stout, Wolfe's doctor, who frequently helps him with his cases, is Dr. Vollmer.

Notes

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References

  • Oliver, Willard M (2017). August Vollmer: The Father of American Policing. Carolina Academic Press.
  • Carte, Gene E. and Elaine H. (1975). Police Reform in the United States: The Era of August Vollmer. University of California Press.
  • Parker, Alfred E. (1972). The Berkeley Police Story (Springfield, Ill: Charles C. Thomas, 1972)
  • International Assn. of Police Chiefs - Past Presidents
  • Berkeley Gazette, April 11, 1905
  • Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America, Alexandra Minna Stern, University of California Press, 2005
  • Go, Julian (2020). "The Imperial Origins of American Policing: Militarization and Imperial Feedback in the Early 20th Century" American Journal of Sociology 125, (5) https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/708464, 1207.
  • Guide to the August Vollmer Papers at The Bancroft Library
  • History, Berkeley Police Department
  • Vollmer and the Polygraph
  • Officer 444 at the Internet Movie Database
  • Officer 444 at the Internet Archive
  • Photo: August Vollmer, Volunteer Fireman (figure on right with colleague's hand on his shoulder)
  • Formal Portrait
  • "Berkeley police treasure found in Texas ‘mystery box’", Berkeleyside, April 22, 2017