Behind
the Badge: The History of the Gloucester Police Department
Volume 2 1940-1977
ISBN:
0-9719387-3-3 •
290 pages
$35
Available from Dogtown Books or purchase autographed
copies at the Police Station
Larry
Ingersoll and Mark Foote, two long-time Gloucester police officers,
have assembled this day-by-day account of the Gloucester police at work,
from the early years to the present. This volume, the second of three,
carries us from 1940 through 1977. These dacades brought with them a
great deal of social change, all of which affected the police department.
After
the U.S. declared war with Japan in 1940, security on the Gloucester
waterfront was tight, with no casual visitors allowed. Armed guards
were stationed at gas, water, and electric plants. Many Gloucester police
officers left to serve overseas, and substitutes had to be found. Car
owners were required to paint the top half of their headlights black.
The city marshal warned teenagers after the Army and Navy both complained
to him about headlight beams going out across the water when cars arrived
at Stage Fort Park for "petting parties." When the war finally
ended, every place in Gloucester that served liquor was closed for 24
hours. No disturbances were reported.
Drownings
continued to be all too frequent. In 1942 a gypsy caravan tried to come
to town but was turned away by police. Parking meters were installed
in 1948, despite the opposition of the Gloucester Times.
Officers
went from walking the beat to cruisers. High-speed chases became common.
Communications vastly improved.
A
recurrent theme was the on-going struggle of the police force to be
paid a living wage. The public demanded extra patrols but were unwilling
to pay them.
A
surge in juvenile crime contributed to a rash of car thefts. In the
1970s, nearly 800 cars were stolen in two years.
A
riot at 1973's St. Peter Fiesta caused "three of the longest nights
for police in the city's history, which will never be forgotten."
In
1977, Marjorie Erkkila was appointed to the force as Gloucester's first
uniformed policewoman.
In
1970, Chief John J. Coyle said that drug abuse was the number one problem
in the city. City Manager Paul Talbot asked city officials to report
anything suspicious that they smelled whrn they came across "long-haired
hippies" because, he said, there was a correlation between drugs
and long hair. Talbot's proposal was rejected dur to problems with civil
liberties.
In
1974, Chief Coyle declared that "rock'n'roll is trouble."
Repeated
accusations of police brutality caused much turmoil for the department
and the city.
Colorful
personalities are often at war with each other in these absorbing pages.
Read all about it in Volume
II!
