PAX Centurion - September / October 2015

Page 38 • PAX CENTURION • September/October 2015 617-989-BPPA (2772) Early 50’s BPD The day shift was ten hours: 7:45 am to 5:45 pm. The night shift was divided into two parts, known as the “first half,” or evening shift and “last half,” the midnight shift. First half went from 5:45 pm to 12:30 am. The last half was 12:30 am until 7:45 am. We worked six days followed by two days off. Every fifth and sixth week we got an extra day off. The pay was low. We were making $51 a week in 1951. We traffic officers participated very little in the actual workings of the police department. We were actually looked down upon. I discovered this one day when I answered a call on the police callbox. Before walkie-talkies, the callbox was the way beat officers com- municated with the station. If a light flashed on the callbox, there was an emergency and someone from the station was trying to contact an officer in the area. The Department had a total of about 2,800 sworn officers, 300 of whom were in the Traffic Division. Traffic was commanded by Deputy Superintendent Hinchey, plus two captains, O’Brien and Petite. They were assisted by a few lieutenants and a large group of sergeants. Many officers were content to stay in Traffic, with the exception of the captains who were anxious to command their own stations. We worked rotating shifts, starting with an evening shift from 4 pm to midnight. We returned the next night at midnight and worked a last half until about 8 am. Then we had to be back to work later that afternoon for another evening shift, or first half. Often that short break was taken up by a required appearance in court, so that we were lucky to get an hour or two of sleep in a twenty-four hour period. 1954 Roll calls were formal. A typical roll call at District 16 consisted of 16 to 24 patrolmen, a lieutenant and one or two sergeants. At the sound of the roll call bell we lined up into two or three rows accord- ing to height. The sergeants would inspect us, checking to see if every officer had the required equipment: a street directory, revolver, ammunition, police baton and callbox key. Also required was your pocket note- book called a filler, in which you wrote of incidents that came to your attention during your tour of duty. One important entry to include was the time and place you met the sergeant during your tour. The lieuten- ant occasionally collected these pocket fillers and read them. At roll call we waited at attention for the lieutenant to enter, take his place on the rostrum and read off the assignments for the tour of duty. At the time, there were only men in our station. A typical distri- bution of the platoon consisted of four men in two cars, two men in the wagon, two men held in the station for clerical duties and the rest on walking routes. There was a priority in filling these assignments: the vehicles were filled first, clerks next, business routes and residen- tial routes last. After roll call came the commands, “Right face, forward march.” We marched out the front door of the station to our assignments. There could not be much stalling because the officers still on duty from the previous shift could not leave until we took their places. After our group left the station the officers on duty came in to be checked off by the sergeant before they could go. If an officer failed to check off after his tour it was considered a very serious matter and a search immediately was made.We had no communication with the station after we walked out the door, except through the callboxes located around the district. If the station wanted us, lights would flash on top of the callboxes and we were expected to respond within 20 minutes. The wagon we used was called a Black Maria, no one was sure why, though it was black. We all took our turn at being the rear-end men on the wagon. The rear-end man sat in the back of the wagon with the prisoners up near the front, sometimes handcuffed and some- A look back to the early 1950’s in the BPD By P.O. Robert E. Anthony, BPPA Historian