BEHIND
"BEHIND THE BADGE"
In
May of 1988, police officers Larry Ingersoll and Mark Foote of the Gloucester
(Mass.) Police Department volunteered for annual duty placing memorial
flags on the graves of deceased officers. Their curiosity got the best
of them and they began what turned out to be a 15 year project that
chronicled the history of the department from the 1600's through the
present.
Along
the way they found and met many families and relatives of deceased officers
while keeping up acquaintances with present and former officers. Numerous
hours were spent in the local library scanning and reading microfilm
of the local paper which began publishing in 1888. Articles concerning
the department were copied and filed after being entered into computer.
Old hand written log books from the 1800's were read as well as articles
in other local papers that were published in the 1800's. Hand written
Selectmen's records had to be also read to get information for the early
years of the Town of Gloucester which became a city in 1874. They were
able to trace the beginnings of local policing from the first mention
of an officer in 1799, through the formal organization of the department
in 1874.
After gathering all of this information, they had to find a way to get
it published. It took nearly an additional year but finally Behind the
Badge, the History of the Gloucester Police Department was published
by Dogtown Books, a local publisher, in early 2004. There was so much
information, that the first book had to be volume one of a three volume
set. The first book covers the years up to 1939 and follows the department
from non-paid officers into the motor age and through prohibition. Quality
of the book was important as it will be a keepsake as there has never
been any written history done of the department. The book is a hardcover
edition of nearly 375 pages and also included biographies of every officer
who served during those years. This will be helpful to families of officers
tracing their roots. There are numerous photos throughout the book as
well.
Reviews have stated that the book contains tantalizing pieces of larger
tales, many of the details lost to time, as well as administrative details
about the department in those early years, such as salaries, the appointment
process and modernizing of equipment that could have been reports from
recent City Council meetings. Noticeable is the history of names that
have been associated with the department for over one hundred years,
but not noticeable are the names of the accused as they have been left
out of the book, although one of the authors mentioned that even the
criminals had a long bloodline of ancestry. Only information that was
in the public record was used to chronicle the stories.
The authors believe that everyone should know who police officers were
and current officers should know who came before them. For the past
sixteen years, these officers have been in Ingersoll's and Foote's lives
and now they can be in everyone else's also. Volume two is scheduled
to be released in August of 2004. All profits from the book will be
donated to local organizations that are involved with history.
