The History of your Department

[njboy13]

Does anybody's police/fire/ems department have any interesting background? I was talking to one of our cops today who has been doing research, and it's pretty interesting, (to me).

-We had a completely original idea for our police cars and uniforms

-The New Jersey Transit Police is the only department that liked our design so much, that they started using it

-Started with 2 officers, the day shift and the night shift

-When residents go out of town, they would notify the police, give them [the police] a key, and a list of valuable possessions and every night, the night officer would go into the house and inspect it for any signs of break ins, or anything missing from the "Valuable Items" list

-When a call would come in, the only way of notification (before radios) was a single, steady green light, hung right above downtown, and it would blink if there was a call, then the officer would have to run to the station, answer the call, and run to the scene.

-We have had only 1 line of duty death, and the officer wasn't even shot or attacked, in fact, he wasn't headed to a dangerous call. He was heading to a car vs. motorcycle, and the second he saw the motorcycle rider's body split in half , his skin turned pale white, and he died right in the seat of his police car.

-Us and a neighboring town have a huge high school football rivalry, and in the 70s and 80s, they actually had to have officers there to make sure no fights broke out.

[Ami89E1234]

STLFD is the second oldest paid fire department in the country so it should have a big history lol.

- First attempts to organize a fire department made in 1822. All fire companies until after 1859 volunteer.

- Actual STLFD started in 1857.

The Great Fire of 1849

St. Louis was the prominent point in the "Far West." In the Spring of 1849, the population of St. Louis was 45,000 with the western boundary of the city extending to Eleventh Street, about 3/4's of a mile in width, by a riverfront of three miles.

On May 17 at 9:00 p.m. a fire alarm sounded. The steamer "The White Cloud" lying at the foot of Cherry Street was on fire. The Fire Department that consisted of 9 hand engines and hose reels promptly responded. The moorings parted and the steamer floated slowly down stream setting 22 other steamers on fire before the "White Cloud" reached the foot of Locust.

The flames leaped from building to building sweeping everything on the levee for four blocks; extending to Main Street westward and crossing Olive. It completely gutted three more blocks between it and Second Street and as far south as Market Street. It then ignited a large copper shop three square blocks away and burned out two more blocks. The Firemen, after laboring for eight hours, were completely demoralized and exhausted. The entire business portion of the city appeared doomed unless something was done. Six buildings were spread with explosive powder and blown up in succession. Captain Thomas B. Targee of Missouri No. 5 died while he was spreading powder into Phillips Music store, the last store to be blown up.

This marked the largest and most destructive fire St. Louis has ever experienced. The fire lasted from 9:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m., and caused the loss of three lives, 430 buildings, 23 steamers, 9 flat boats, and several barges.

- Modern day dept. has more than 900 employees and covers 62 sq. miles.

- Lot of LoDDs (multiple crime involved ones too i.e. FFs being shot)

SLMPD

- Has more than 1900 employees (1300+ being officers).

- First police force in 1808 with 4 officers. Reorganized in 1846.

- 162 officers have suffered LoDDs. First LoDD was on April 10, 1863 when Sgt. John Sturdy was clubbed by two friends of a man he had arrested (he later died in his home). Most recent was Officer Julius K. Moore who died in an on-duty crash while responding Code 3 to assist in catching some burglars when he was cut off by a semi making a right turn, crashing his car into a stoplight and brick wall.

[hunter42]

The force was established in 1949 following the amalgamation of the originally independent Fife County, Dunfermline City and Kirkcaldy Burgh police forces

In May 1857, the strength of Dunfermline City Police was increased to a total of 7 officers

In 2008, Fife’s police force were the worst offenders for trashing their own vehicles – almost half of the £82,2213.75 worth of wreckage was caused by their hapless drivers.

Officers in the Kingdom smashed 21 of their cars, leaving three completely written off at a cost of more than £16,000.

So we have the worst drivers

Btw, here is a map showing Scotland's divisions:

Judging by the Fife constabulary memorial roll, only one Dunfermline city police officer died and the first Fife Constabulary death was in the 70's - 30 years after being formed.

Daniel Campbell

 

Police Constable

Dunfermline City Police

 

Died  14 February 1915, aged 46

 

Collapsed while on patrol in Bath Street late on the night of 13 February, he was conveyed to his home but died the next day from a cerebral haemorrhage.

George Hughes

Police Sergeant

Fife Constabulary

Died 22 February 1979, aged 42

Fatally injured in a road traffic accident while travelling to duty, when his vehicle was involved in a head on collision.

[Newfoundking]

Now I know that we do have the oldest civil police force in North America, yes older then NYPD or any others for that matter, however I didn't really read the entire history, I do believe it's on the RNC's site though.

I am a little more up to date on the Fire departments history. It does not have royal status nor is it the oldest (I don't think so anyways.)

It was founded after the second great fire in the 1800's because almost the entire city had burned down twice in less than 50 years. Now in the entire history of the department, which I think is pretty cool, only one fire fighter has ever died on duty. Isn't that pretty awesome? And he didn't die at a fire, he actually died in the station back when they used horses and carts. He was walking around the horse bay I guess it could be called, when a box alarm from downtown went off and it scared a horse awake, and then it ran him over, cart and all. Needless to say he lost that battle.

Since the St. John's fire department has started in the 1800's it has grown substantially and now is the St. John's regional Fire department, covering most of the greater Metro area, and has it's own website now and everything. It's still pretty new and you can find a much more detailed history at http://www.sjrfd.ca

For those of you interested in the RNC history, their main site is:

http://www.rnc.gov.nl.ca/default.htm

History link for the RNC is:

http://www.rnchs.ca/

(Yes it's so old it gets it's own society)