From Lane Co Oregon

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Police Quartlery, March 2002

from Police Quarterly, 2002; 5; 96

Policing "The Eugene Police Department, 1862-1932"

"TROUBLE ON THE OUTSIDE, TROUBLE ON THE INSIDE": GROWING PAINS, SOCIAL CHANGE, AND SMALL TOWN POLICING THE EUGENE POLICE DEPARTMENT, 1862-1932 by JOSEPH LAYTHE

Edinboro University of Pennsylvania

Introduction

This article examines a century of policing in Eugene, Oregon, from 1862 to 1932. Its central argument is that the city's early civic leaders and law enforcement officers were concerned with preserving the status quo and image of the city by restricting the entrance of the "dangerous class." As the city expanded, however, and the police department grew to meet the demands of the changing city, the department increasingly suffered the same problems it had been designed to stop. Although the department's ability to successfully address crime and the city's targeted concerns fluctuated over time, the problems within the force remained. Eugene's law enforcement history, as a result, both substantiates the larger patterns in American law enforcement history and deviates from that pattern in unique ways.

Throughout much of the 19th and early 20th century, Eugene, Oregon, was a small, relatively homogeneous community in the heart of the Willamette Valley. Like the New England towns of the 17th century, the town of Eugene was "aggressively conformist." To borrow the phrase of legal scholar Lawrence Friedman, one might say that the city was a "tight little island" (Friedman, 1993). City leaders were consistently worried about the public image of the city and often took draconian measures to uphold that image.

Eugene's city leaders were committed to keeping all social dangers at bay. There was within the city an overwhelming consensus as to what was acceptable behavior and who was and who was not an acceptable occupant of that community. To accomplish that mission of "moralisolation," Eugene exercised formal, official policing as well as informal communal policing. The strength of rumor, the Church, and family often served as a tool of social order. When Eugene was fairly small, through the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, this informal social order measure was effective and accepted. But, as the city grew and diversified, the traditional techniques of preserving the peace and maintaining the status quo were less effective and ultimately abandoned. As the city grew and abandoned its sense of community and employed formal institutional police measures, it found its police department experiencing precisely the same problems it had sought to address.

Since the 1960s and 1970s, with the explosion of police history research, scholars have noted the complex nature of policing in American cities. Both Laneâ's (1967) Policing the City: Boston, 1822-1885 and Richardson's (1970) The New York Police: Colonial Times to 1901 traced the administrative development of the police and unearthed those departments' intimate associations with corrupt city politics. The police, both Lane and Richardson argued, were the products of their community's social, political, and economic circumstances. Johnson's (1979) study, Policing the Urban Underworld: The Impact of Crime on the Development of the American Police, 1800-1887, remedied those works' deficiencies by examining the relationship between crime and policing. Crime, Johnson argued, has a direct correlation to the quantity, quality, and function of a community's law enforcement agency. Steinberg's (1989) The Transformation of Criminal Justice, Philadelphia, 1800-1880 also addressed the changing nature of criminal justice in an American city, but it also noted the great uncertainty involved in the creation of Philadelphia's centralized police force. Detroit and the Problem of Order, 1830-1880, by Schneider (1980), supported Steinberg's (1989) conclusions about the reluctance of Americans to endorse a centralized police force. Schneider (1980) also noted how Detroit businessmen supported that city's central police force only after they recognized that their private, informal forms of social order and control were ineffective in stemming the growing civic disorder that the city was experiencing. The changing multiple functions of law enforcement agencies has been the topic of several works, but scant attention has been paid to the changing responsibilities and shape of smaller departments.

All of the aforementioned works focus on the police departments of large cities with substantive crime problems. There has been virtually no work done on how small cities also fell into the pattern of developing centralized police forces and how their small-scale problems also prompted reorganization and reform. As a result, this article offers new insights as to how the transplanted institutions and values of the American East were adopted and adapted in smaller, more remote towns of the American West. It offers a social construction approach to the study of policing whereby the idiosyncratic and interactive elements of society "crime, punishment, law enforcement, public perception, politics, economics, and social composition" are examined simultaneously. Simply put, one cannot understand the institution of policing outside the context of the society it serves. And because each community has its own unique blend of societal factors, each community will have its own unique police story. Eugene is no exception.

The history of the Eugene Police Department is a story of constant adaptation to the growth and diversification of the small city of Eugene, Oregon. The Eugene Police Department was consistently forced to not only deal with the changes in American society and images of American police but also what that society perceived as the function of the police in that changing community (Robbins, 1990). Moreover, its police functions were also used to address the town's changing status within the context of regional economics. Over the course of the period examined here, Eugene was largely subject to Republican town rule. The consistency of political governance also offers us unique insights into the subtle changes in law enforcement function and practice. As such, it is the perfect case study for the development of a police force.

Eugene rests in the third most populous county in the state of Oregon, and its economy was dependent not only on agriculture but timber as well. Unfortunately for Eugene, the construction of railroads, the northward flow of the Willamette River, and its access to the Columbia River and the ocean virtually ensured Portland, Oregon, its supremacy as the region's economic hub. The Willamette Valley was, in effect, Portland's hinterland, and Eugene was but a satellite. Over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Eugene's success, or so envisioned by its leaders, was to loosen its dependency on and subordination to Portland. City leaders saw their separation hinging on their city's moral rectitude. If Portland were an economic hub and corrupt and crime plagued, then Eugene would assert its economic independence through moral purification. Asserting "moral superiority" required unique forms of law enforcement and social order. More important, it required a consistency in its vision against "dangerous outsiders."

The presence of the University of Oregon (1870s) and the Southern Pacific Railroad (1880s) further presented new challenges to the city's law enforcers, which they confronted in typical ways reflecting their staid conventional social outlook. From the 1870s to the present, the Eugene Police Department was forced to deal with the "intrusion of the outside world" and accommodate itself to social change.

Institutional History

An Ordinary Beginning

Eugene was incorporated as a city in 1862 and by the following spring of 1863 had installed a city marshal responsible for the prevention and detection of social disorder in the community. The city leaders, like officials throughout the West, looked to their hometowns and states for structural guidance. As a result, the organization and procedures adopted in Eugene directly parallel those in the Midwest and East. Of course, the Eugene City Marshal's Office and the Eugene Police Department that followed it were much smaller than Eastern departments. Although the department was always led by a chief of police or city marshal, those positions often carried with them a wide range of responsibilities beyond the prevention and detection of crime, including catching stray animals, collecting taxes, summoning juries, and the pruning of trees. Initially, the marshal was chosen personally by the mayor. Over time, however, the selection process was increasingly relegated to the city council with only the consent of the mayor.

Those city councilmen, who were overwhelmingly Republican, made law enforcement appointments according to political partisanship rather than the qualifications or merits of the individual. Moreover, those seeking the appointments were largely drawn from the newest ranks of entrepreneurs in the city. It was as if the position of marshal or chief of police were seen as an important access to the city's economic network. Policing, as a result, was not only subject to the whims of political decision making but also the fluctuating economics of the community. But because the position of chief of police was so politically charged, we find a high turnover rate among the chiefs of police, all mayoral appointees, and their policemen who were typically of the same party affiliation. Between 1863 and 1885, for example,the city of Eugene had 16 city marshals.

Those that served as policemen, constables, and night watchmen faced numerous dangers in the city. In 1869, for example, Robert G. Hadley fired upon night watchman David Felch. Felch returned fire and wounded Hadley. Hadley, however, was not prosecuted and remained in the city. More important, he carried a grudge. In October 1870, the two men crossed paths again. In front of the St. Charles Hotel, words were exchanged between the two men. David Felch, Eugene City night watchman, shot and killed Hadley (Walling, 1884). Despite the dangers, men were eager to fill the positions.

A Changing City

By 1886, city leaders recognized that they could no longer continue to operate with a haphazard, constantly changing, and uncommitted police organization. The social changes occurring in Eugene required systematic and consistent attention from its law enforcers. The city had already begun to change in the 1870s. In 1876, the University of Oregon campus was opened on the eastern periphery of the city. Although the students themselves did not pose a threat to the social order, they did require an expansion of policing services to that part of town. In that year, E. Smith was hired for the school year to patrol the campus district at night (Eugene Police Department, 1876). This position, however, was not permanent. The lack of substantial activity in that part of town and subsequent economic crunches merited his dismissal. More important, throughout the 1870s and 1880s, Eugene became the central hub for the agricultural trade of the southern Willamette Valley. The city was also located along an important and profitable corridor between San Francisco and Portland. Mobile Americans seek- ing the American dream, and in pursuit of a job, traveled up and down the West Coast. Eugene newspapers frequently reported a high number of �idle men� in Eugene waiting for harvest work or other agricultural jobs. Includedamongthemwasalargenumberofnon-Whites.Beginningaround 1879-1880, the city�s police force was increasingly called on to deal with the�undesirables�thathadinfiltratedthecity.Forexample,inAugust1879, two Italian men, Dominico Briaggi and Andrew Chiggari, passed through the city in search of work. They were promptly rounded up by the city mar- shal and escorted to the edge of town. A local newspaper reported that the people of Eugene hoped the �citizens down the valley will give these two old frauds . . . a warm reception wherever they put in an appearance� (Ore- gon State Journal, August 30, 1879, p. 5). The clearly sarcastic tone of the editorial suggests that the city of Eugene was having difficulty in coping with its changing economic role and population composition. One year later, the same newspaper reported a fight between a local White man, Mr. Brown, and a Chinese launderer that had recently set up shop in the city. 100 POLICEQUARTERLY (Vol. 5, No. 1, March 2002) © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at Google Indexer on September 18, 2007 http://pqx.sagepub.com Downloaded from Page 7 Although it was Mr. Brown who initiated the fight and delivered the only blows, both men were arrested. The judge hearing the case dismissed Brown�s charges of disorderly conduct but held the Chinese launderer for assault. Law enforcement in Eugene was directed at preserving the social status quo. The increasing presence of �strangers� in the city alarmed its residentsenoughtocallonthepolicetodealwiththenewtransientelement. This problem, from the perspective of the city�s residents and police, was further amplified in the 1880s with the entrance of the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1883, the city secured the services of a permanent night watch, raising the total number of law enforcers in the city to three. As the outside pressures of a heterogeneous, urbanized world bore down on Eugene, the city was forced to accommodate that change and expand its law enforce- ment body to cope with those new menaces.

Intrusion of the Outside World

Between 1870 and 1890, the city of Eugene had nearly tripled its popula- tion from 861 to 2,478. Included in that new population was a large number of men and women who did not fit the city�s self-image of a white bastion formorality.Moreover,thecity�scrimerateshadrisendramaticallyoverthe past few years. In 1879, for example, the number of arrests in Eugene totaled 27. Just one decade later, the number of arrests had risen to 255. In March and April of 1889, the city leaders sat down and developed a twofold strategy for addressing the city�s growing problems. First, they developed a new body of laws designed to impose moral order. As was true across the country�not just in big cities but small ones as well�the middle- and upper-class residents began to link the changes in social composition (increasing numbers of southern and eastern Europeans) to social values. Theytargeteddrinkingandgamblingascentralissuesofdebate.Amongthe city council ordinances created were a series of refined laws against gam- bling, the sale of liquor, and vagrancy. Also included in this new legislation was a new law against �bawdy houses.� Bawdy houses, or brothels, were seen as a significant problem in the city in which there was a sizeable num- ber of young males away from home, those men attending the university, and a large population of transient workers from the agriculture and timber industries. The Bawdy House Law, Ordinance 67, was passed on March 18, 1889, and specifically addressed not only the owners and operators of the brothelbutalsotheinmates.Allindividualsassociatedwiththehouseunder charge were to be subject to as much as $100 in fines and 50 days in jail. In Laythe / EUGENE POLICE DEPARTMENT 101 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at Google Indexer on September 18, 2007 http://pqx.sagepub.com Downloaded from Page 8 addition to tighter laws, the city recommended the hiring of a second full- timenightwatchandsoughttheemploymentofanindividualwillingtovig- orously enforce the new laws and restore the city to its �moral prominence.� The city was given a new night watch on April 13, 1889, and by 1890 had found its vigorous law enforcer in Robert E. Eastland (Laws, 1905). Eastland oversaw a new and larger force of police officers in Eugene. In hisfirstyearsinoffice,Eastlandmaintainedalowprofile.Hesupportedand endorsed the county�s construction of a new jail at the corner of what is now 8th and Oak and offered his assistance to a number of county operations. Despite his enthusiasm toward addressing the city�s crime problem, Eastland appears to have done little in his first term. But by the second term, he was faced with a set of new problems. The �tramp element� continued to plague the city (Annual Report, 1894). Eastland was confronted with its increase and the political liability of that increase. Here, he promised vigor- ous action. In the summer of 1894, Eastland spearheaded an effort for new vagrancy laws. Laws against begging and vagrancy would, it was hoped, eliminate this visible nuisance. If Eugene was expected to establish itself in its own right, separate itself from the tentacles of corrupt Portland to the north, and present a strong moral image, the problem of vagrants and tran- sients needed to be immediately addressed. Eastland�s work was success- ful; in May and June 1894, the Eugene City Council passed a series of antibegging ordinances. The city council further supported the chief�s request for extra policemen to deal with the new �lawless element� that had invaded their city. In the annual report to the Eugene City Council, Mayor Kuykendallreportedthat�theChiefofPolicehastakenacommendableand lively interest in purifying and purging the city of filth and deleterious mat- ter� (Robbins, 1990, p 107). In the heart of America�s greatest depression to that date, the poor and unemployed were no longer seen as cheap potential labor or as unfortunate neighbors but as �filth and deleterious matter� (Robbins, 1990, p. 107). In that same period, Eastland also sought means to remove the immoral theatrical performances that were coming into the city with greater regular- ity. This was achieved in April 1894 with the passage of Ordinance 244, which prohibited �unchaste and demoralizing theatrical performances� (Laws, 1905). By 1897, Mayor Kuykendall claimed that Eastland�s efforts had cleaned the city and that �all bawdy houses within the limits of the city have been suppressed� (Robbins, 1990, p 25). Ironically, however, during Eastland�s reign, the number of arrests actually declined. For example, in 1896 and 1897, there were only 82 and 47 arrests, respectively. That is a 102 POLICEQUARTERLY (Vol. 5, No. 1, March 2002) © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at Google Indexer on September 18, 2007 http://pqx.sagepub.com Downloaded from Page 9 68% and 81% drop from the arrest figures totaled in 1888-1889 (from the arrest ledger of the Eugene Police Department archives, 1880s). If Eastland was not arresting the criminals that �plagued� the city, what was he doing? Andhowwasthecityaccomplishingitsrestorationofmoralorder,ifatall?

Department in Crisis

During Eastland�s term of office, the United States suffered through the greatest economic crisis to that date. The depression of 1893, however, did little to hurt Eugene�s economic growth. Only one bank, the Lane County Bank, closed during these hard times, whereas two others expanded their assets (Robbins, 1990). The relative stability of the community and its image of success were, in part, the product of Eastland�s purges. But by the 3rd year of the depression, the city�s surplus funds were nearly eroded. Between1896and1897,thecityshiftedfromasurplusof$600toan$1,100 deficit. The combined effect of a municipal deficit and an insufficient num- ber of arrests prompted some city residents to call for Eastland�s removal. The formula was simple: The crisis was brought on by social change, and thatsocialchangewastheproductofpoorandforeignnewcomers.Because the depression had only worsened and not all elements of the �outside� invaders were removed, Eastland had not accomplished his task. Ulti- mately, the city�s small-scale crisis led to Robert Eastland�s resignation and Mayor Kuykendall�s appointment of a new chief of police. Eastland�s departure marks an important shift in the city leaders� attitudes about law enforcement and those responsible for the maintenance of social order. Whereas they had once viewed law enforcers as a buffer to the outside world, there had been little threat of those outside forces disrupting the city�s social fabric. By Eastland�s term, however, those forces had become strong enough to generate legitimate fear about the impact of crime on the city. Eastlandpaidtheprice.In1897,JosephStileswassworninasthecity�snew chief of police. Like his predecessors, Stiles had absolutely no law enforcement experi- ence. Born in Indiana in 1855, he had come to Eugene within only the past 4 years. Between his arrival in 1893 and his appointment in 1897, Stiles oper- ated a printing shop in the city. Despite the lack of training, Stiles seems to have been genuinely committed to protecting the city. In his year in office, he and his officers arrested 151 individuals, with nearly 60% of those con- victed. Perhaps more telling about Stiles�s style of law enforcement, how- ever, was his increase in the use of the �herding out� technique. In 1897, Laythe / EUGENE POLICE DEPARTMENT 103 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at Google Indexer on September 18, 2007 http://pqx.sagepub.com Downloaded from Page 10 Stiles escorted 21 people to the edge of town for their offenses. This is sig- nificant for several reasons. First, it illustrates Stiles�s creativity in dealing with the criminal element, especially in light of the financial crunch facing the city at that time. Stiles recognized that not all offenses warranted the time,energy,andfundsofapropercriminalprosecution.Thisnuancedview of crime was in keeping with the more sophisticated techniques of segrega- tion and isolation practiced in larger American cities. Simply put, Stiles, in coordination with the mayor and other public officials, chose which laws to enforce and which individuals to enforce them against. But, more impor- tant, this style of law enforcement, which is not atypical for the West, is clearlyextralegal.Stilescircumventeddueprocess.Heandhisofficerscon- fronted and convicted individuals without the presence of a judge or jury. They, according to their own biases, delivered �justice� to the city of Eugene. City leaders later defended the practice by saying, �This method of dealing with the vagrant element, from whence nine-tenths of crime comes, preventstheconsummationofanyschemestoroborburglarize,andthereby prevents the commission of crimes in our well-behaved city� (Annual Report, 1893-1906). Stiles, unlike his predecessor, was willing to protect the city from the �dangerous elements� at all cost. He had seen what had happened to Eastland and, as a result, took the necessary measures to not only protect the city but also preserve his position and status. In 1898, Stiles was removed from the position of chief of police by the new presiding municipal officer, Mayor Chrisman. Prior administrations, although dominated by the Republican Party, had maintained relatively peaceful relations with those of the opposing party. As the city experienced social change, however, the city�s residents increasingly looked to other political parties and new political voices. Chrisman was one such new voice. He quickly appointed Charles Kissinger to the position of chief of police. Kissinger served only 2 years and did little to distinguish him in that position. The lackluster efforts of the new chief prompted Mayor Chrisman to reappoint Stiles as the chief of police for the city of Eugene. Chrisman, like Stiles, recognized that his ability to successfully address crime was a prerequisite for reelection. Despite the shift in political conditions in the city�toward political equity�Chrisman saw it imperative to turn back to the appointee of his predecessor. And so Stiles was rehired and given the mandate to continue his extralegal tactics. The city had a long history of disregarding procedural safeguards. Just a year earlier, mobs assembled to demand the execution of alleged murderer 104 POLICEQUARTERLY (Vol. 5, No. 1, March 2002) © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at Google Indexer on September 18, 2007 http://pqx.sagepub.com Downloaded from Page 11 Claude Branton. The public was not denied its request. On May 12, 1899, the angry citizens of Eugene were rewarded with the slip of a noose and the hangingofBranton.Eugenefancieditselfinawaragainstcrimeandelected law and order officials who shared this belief. The use of covert illegal methodsbythepolicewasrationalizedonthegroundsthatitwasdoneasan act of �public spirit.� Because of the community�s scant regard for proce- duralsafeguards,Eugenepolicecouldoftenactonsuspicionalone.In1903, for example, Officer Croner saw a man go through the rear entrance of the Castle Saloon. Suspicious, Croner followed the man and asked him what he was doing. Although Burt Aldrich had done nothing illegal, he was arrested and temporarily confined. Croner, having no grounds to detain Aldrich, releasedhimbuttoldhim�tomakehimselfscarceabouttown.Hewasgiven just ten minutes in which to reach the city limit� (Daily Eugene Guard, Jan- uary 14, 1903, p. 4). Aldrich committed no actual offense, but in the offi- cer�s eyes, �his intentions were so plain� (Daily Eugene Guard, January 14, 1903, p. 4). In another case that year, a man described by the local newspa- per as a �California Coon� was discovered sleeping and eating in an aban- donedfarmhouse.Whenlocalmenconfrontedthe�bigfatnegro,�theDaily Eugene Guard reported, the man said, �Ise no bad man, sah. I ain�t done nuffin.� Indeed, he had neither committed a crime nor was he even within the city�s jurisdiction. But the two men brought the man to town to face potential trespassing charges. Because the farmhouse was abandoned and not owned by the two men and the alleged offense did not occur within the city�s defined jurisdiction, the judge decided to drop the case. The African American was charged, however, with possession of a concealed weapon within the city limits and sentenced to 50 days in jail. Had the �California Coon�notbeenbroughttotown,hewouldnothavebeenarrestedforviolat- ing the city�s ordinance for concealed weapons. It is clear in this case that the statutory offense charge was used simply as a last resort to arrest and incarcerate what the city considered a member of the �dangerous class� (Daily Eugene Guard, January 14, 1903). Stiles served 4 more years, from 1900 to 1904, whereupon he resigned to run for the position of Lane County sheriff. On February 5, 1903, former Lane County deputy sheriff, Elliot Lyons, shot and killed Sheriff William Withers (Cornelius, 1980). Stiles, who had been involved in the successful manhunt for Lyons, believed he was the most qualified successor for With- ers�sposition.Intheelectionof1904,however,StileslosttotheDemocratic candidate Fred Fisk. Almost as soon as the ballots had been counted, local Laythe / EUGENE POLICE DEPARTMENT 105 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at Google Indexer on September 18, 2007 http://pqx.sagepub.com Downloaded from Page 12 newspaper editorialists began speculating that chicanery was at play in Stiles�s defeat. �Some lies hatched for the occasion, were sprung on Joe Stiles,� the Eugene Morning Register (June 7, 1904) noted, �for there is a class of cheap, thankless voters, who listen to the last lie told, roll it under the tongue as a sweet morsel and accept it as gospel truth� (p. 8). This is fur- ther evidence of the growing political rift within the city and how that divi- sion affected law enforcement. It was later revealed that 8 of Eugene�s 11 saloons had openly opposed Stiles�s election. So long as law enforcement was weak, the moral rhetoric of city officials could be tolerated by those within the vice community. But, now that the rhetoric was being enforced, the vice community took action. The city was not only politically divided but also socially divided. City leaders had not been able to maintain a con- sistent vision of Eugene�s strategy for independence. A combination of par- tisanpoliticsanddifferentperspectivesonmoralitysquashedStiles�scareer advancement in 1904, but only 2 years later, Stiles himself would do far more to kill his career. In the meantime, Stiles resumed the position of chief of police, taking it away from his temporary replacement, A. W. Gilbert, a local timber locator and logging contractor. Stiles�s �herding out� technique was continued, which prompted Mayor F. M. Wilkins to announce, �There has never been a time in the history of Eugene when we were more prosperous; when there was a better observance of law and order� (Eugene Morning Register, June 7, 1905, p. 8). Many people attributed the success of the city to its charis- matic chief of police. However, Stiles�s popularity quickly crashed in the early months of 1906, when rumors began circulating of a scandal within the Eugene Police Department. In February of 1906, the story became pub- lic. Reports suggested two young girls, Erma and Ruby Miller, had been intimate with Chief Stiles and Officer Virgil Rowland. Supporters of Stiles claimed that the girls made the remarks to protect their teenage lovers, Loren and Lawrence Farlow. Stiles�s detractors called for his immediate resignation and incarceration. The city police, perhaps to protect Stiles and perhaps even under his direction, called for the arrest of the two Farlow boys. The police argued that the Farlow boys had sold liquor to the girls, �debauched them,� and fled to southern Oregon. The Farlows were subse- quently arrested in Medford and indicted in early March in Eugene. The boys did not deny having had relationships with the girls, but this did not prove Stiles�s or Rowland�s innocence. Under intense public scrutiny, Rowland broke down and admitted his adulterous relationship with Ruby 106 POLICEQUARTERLY (Vol. 5, No. 1, March 2002) © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at Google Indexer on September 18, 2007 http://pqx.sagepub.com Downloaded from Page 13 Miller. Rowland told how he, as an on-duty police officer, approached the two girls as they passed through the city�s hop-yards. Rowland recognized that they were drunk and offered to give them a ride home. The girls accepted. Instead, he took Ruby Miller to the McClung Hotel in downtown Eugene and spent the night with her. Having admitted the affair, the officer was immediately indicted on charges of adultery. Officers George Croner and Ed Farrington, Rowland�s coworkers in the Eugene Police Department, testified against him. Rowland�s attorney attempted to portray the young girls in a negative light. Ruby Miller, he said, was a �brazen and shameless woman.�Nonetheless,thescandalwasout,anditrockedthecityofEugene. Stiles�s guilt began to look more and more probable. The truth of the case will never be revealed, however, as on the day of the Farlow boys�arrests, Police Chief Joseph Stiles shot himself in the head. In an old shed alongside a tannery on West 8th Street, Stiles was found lying dead with a gaping wound to his right temple. His suicide note read, �I can never stand this disgrace. I am not guilty. So goodbye to all� (Oregon State Journal, March 17, 1906, p. 4). The Stiles administration may have been so deeply troubled because of a lack of clear law enforcement vision. They were, in effect, a transitional administration. Although they were now pursuing criminals and the �dan- gerous class� like never before (and often using extralegal methods to accomplish those tasks), they were also poorly trained and educated in law enforcement. Moreover, Eugene�s law enforcers under Stiles were no lon- ger drawn from the young entrepreneurial class. They were not individuals looking to translate their law enforcement position into future business deals. As a result, their behavior was no longer tempered by the desire to maintain a respectable image. In effect, they were law enforcers without a clearly defined vision, scope of power, or restraint on their power.

Politics and Prohibition

Ed Farrington, Stiles�s replacement, served as Eugene chief of police from 1906 to 1911. During his term in office, the department was increased in size from four to seven. That increase was in large part responsive to the population growth in the city. Between 1900 and 1910, Eugene grew by more than 178% (Bureau of Municipal Research, 1958). The city was a desirable place to live because of the prosperity experienced there. For example, between 1907 and 1910, the city�s building construction value rosefrom$250,000tonearly$1.5million.Inaddition,thecityseemedtobe Laythe / EUGENE POLICE DEPARTMENT 107 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at Google Indexer on September 18, 2007 http://pqx.sagepub.com Downloaded from Page 14 on the edge of modernization. In 1907, the city inaugurated the running of a trolley from west Eugene to downtown. The city�s growth was also a result of its emphasis on a strict moral code. In 1911, the new chief of police, J. O. Bristol, initiated a sweeping campaign to eliminate the alcohol problem withinthecity�sborders.By1912,Bristol�sofficershadarrestednearly350 individuals for liquor-related offenses. This was roughly 74% of the total number of arrests made in 1912. Bristol, however, only served one term as chief of police (Annual Report, 1912). In 1913, in the 1st day of his mayoral administration, Mayor Yoran demoted Chief Bristol and appointed one of his patrolmen, C. B. Christensen, as the new chief of police in Eugene (Daily Eugene Guard, April 15, 1913, p. 3). Christensen would go on to serve 10 years as the chief of police, the second longest in the history of the Eugene Police Depart- ment. Yoran�s shuffling of the police department was part of what he called his pledge to law enforcement. He further stated that, �the arm of the law rests lightly on all who obey the city ordinances� (Daily Eugene Guard, April15,1913,p.4).Buttothosewhoseektoskirtthelaw,hesuggested,the arm of the law will crush. Yoran was enthusiastic about law enforcement. He hoped to apply local laws vigorously to local vice. This new energy was, in part, fueled by a growing Prohibitionist movement. In early April 1913, on the heels of Yoran�selection,EugenebecamethesiteofastatewidemeetingoftheAnti- Saloon League (ASL). The ASL had made significant victories in their bat- tle against alcohol by slowly whittling away the federal government�s phi- losophy of not legislating behavior. The ASL was also successful in waging the antiliquor campaign at the state level (Daily Eugene Guard, July 23, 1915, p. 3). In Oregon, Eugene seemed to be the best place to start this �moral crusade.� Christensen, as a purely political appointee, set out to ful- fill Yoran�s mandate. By 1915, it was clear to all residents in Eugene that every effort was being made to stamp out the illicit sale of liquor in the city. ItwasonthosegroundsthatonFebruary20,1915,J.A.WetzellandCharles Kissinger were arrested for bootlegging (Eugene Morning Register, Febru- ary 20, 1915, p. 4). Kissinger�s arrest was shocking to many citizens of the city.Kissingerhadservedaschiefofpolicefrom1898to1900.Kissingerwas just one among many. Between 1913 and 1916, nearly half of all arrests in Eugene were made for liquor-related offenses. The total number of arrests, however,declinedoverthatperiod,suggestingthatthecitizensofEugenerec- ognized and accepted the strict moral code that was forced on them. 108 POLICEQUARTERLY (Vol. 5, No. 1, March 2002) © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at Google Indexer on September 18, 2007 http://pqx.sagepub.com Downloaded from Page 15 Yoran�s administration and Christensen�s department were devoted to Progressive values, which included Prohibition. Among the many elements in the Progressive movement was a call for civil service reform. In theory, this meant that law enforcers would be hired according to their qualifica- tions rather than their personal or political relations. This may have had an impact on larger cities. In smaller cities, like Eugene, it is questionable. Localcityofficialsgavelipservicetothereformbutdelayeditsapplication. More important, the civil service standards simply provided the agencies with a scaled assessment of those within the pool of candidates. It did not ensurequalityapplicants.Asaresult,placeslikeEugenemayhavehiredthe best of those that applied, but those that were applying were not necessarily being drawn from the best elements of society. In the end, the professional- ism hoped for through the civil service reform did little to bring quality law enforcers to Eugene�s streets. Another element of the Progressive values espoused by the Yoran- Christensen administration was their commitment to women in the work- place. In April of 1913, Martha Randall, a police matron, was hired as man- ager of the Department of Public Safety. Taking her place as police matron was Mary Cox. The presence of two women within the law enforcement body in Eugene changed the dynamics and focus of the department. This change had less to do with their vision as law enforcers than it did with the public�s perception of the police, which was an even more powerful shaper of police policy. Randall and Cox were not only instrumental in keeping the campaign against liquor alive but also initiated a campaign to save the city�s youths (Daily Eugene Guard, April 13, 1915, p. 2). Although youth-related offenses occurred in Eugene�s past, they were typically dealt with by send- ing the teenager home and thus avoiding arrest and incarceration. Under new Progressive leadership, the city�s policemen were directed to address all youth offenses. For example, during a 2-day span in the spring of 1915, 17boyswerearrestedforvandalismandloitering.Thiswaragainstjuvenile delinquency had a twofold effect. On one hand, it appears to have signifi- cantly reduced the number of juvenile offenses over the long run and reduced the level of everyday disorder. Yet, on the other hand, the publica- tion of these arrests generated a public uproar in Eugene. Residents of the city became increasingly alarmed about juvenile crime and assumed that theincidenceofjuvenileoffenseswasrising.AlthoughChristensen�smoral crusade against juvenile delinquency was working, few people within the city knew it. As a result, the public lost confidence in Christensen and increasingly called for his removal. But although Christensen seemed Laythe / EUGENE POLICE DEPARTMENT 109 © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at Google Indexer on September 18, 2007 http://pqx.sagepub.com Downloaded from Page 16 ineffective against juvenile offenses, he seemed effective against alcohol. His war against liquor-related offenses saved his administration. In 1920, however, the United States Congress passed a constitutional amendment making Prohibition the law nationwide. This national-level legislation undercut the political stability of Christensen. The city of Eugene no longer needed the antiliquor crusader. In 1923, W. G. Judkins was appointed chief of police for the city of Eugene.Judkins�sgoalduringthisperiodwastostreamlinethedepartment. He cut the size of the force back from 10 in 1923 to 6 in 1926. Although he reduced the number of police officers, he gave the department greater mobility. It was under the Judkins administration that the department acquired a patrol car and two police motorcycles. These new vehicles were added with the understanding that those officers who remained could cover more ground and prevent and detect crime with greater speed. Judkins also requested that any new officers hired by the department be committed pro- fessionals. Yet it was very difficult for Judkins to lure educated, committed individuals to the department when those individuals were asked to work 10-hour days with only 1 day off per month, all for the paltry sum of $125 a month. This lack of adequate compensation would be a persistent problem for the department well into the 1960s. The lack of professionalism on the part of Eugene police officers contin- ued. In 1927, during the 1st year of Chief of Police Jimmy Strait�s term (1927-1930), an incident occurred that reflects the lack of professionalism in Eugene. In early October 1927, the police committee of the city council of Eugene received a letter signed by three young women. The women accused two officers of the Eugene Police Department of gross negligence. The letter stated that the two officers, who had visited the women�s house, notonlyusedobscenelanguageunbecomingtoanofficerofthelawbutalso drank while on duty. Police Chief Jimmy Strait filed the letter as an official complaint against the two young officers, Officer Purkey and Officer Pol- lack. He further charged that the officers had broken their assignment areas in attending the �party� and had made unauthorized use of the departmental vehicle to do so. It was later revealed through a barrage of testimony that Purkey and Pollack had received a tip about a party at the women�s apart- ment. They then went to the building and stood outside the place for more than 20 minutes in an effort to get evidence of a party and to hear any slan- derous remarks that might be used against the women inside the building. When they did enter the building, they accused the women of having alco- hol,aclearviolationofProhibition,butthenstayedintheapartmentandhad 110 POLICEQUARTERLY (Vol. 5, No. 1, March 2002) © 2002 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at Google Indexer on September 18, 2007 http://pqx.sagepub.com Downloaded from Page 17 drinkswiththegirls.Yet,despitetheirparticipationintheactivities,Pollack and Purkey proceeded to ticket the women (Letter to the Police Committee, 1927). Policemen in Eugene had a sense of invincibility. They believed that they could do anything so long as they wore their police badge. The Purkey- Pollack story is also significant in that it reflects a serious breakdown in the city�swaragainstimmoralityandalcohol.Theinabilityand,perhaps,unwill- ingness of Strait and other local law enforcers to address alcohol consump- tionandenforceProhibitionledtoStrait�sdismissalin1930,aswellasthatof his successors in 1932. The absence of local law enforcement against alcohol prompted state legislators to create the Oregon State Police (OSP) in 1931. Yet, by the time they became a functionally operating organization, Prohibi- tionhadbeenrepealed.TheOSPremained,however.Theinvasionoftheout- side world forced the city to rely on outside forces to accomplish its mission of social order. The OSP, Portland Police Department, and federal agencies were increasingly called on to ensure public safety and the protection of the city from "dangerous elements."

Conclusion

From the very beginning, the city of Eugene has had to cope with the invasion of the outside world. In the 1870s, transient farm workers and immigrants invaded the city. By the early 20th century, loggers and the unemployed swelled the city's ranks. Although the city changed, the defensive mentality remained. The Eugene Police Department was the principal arm of social order to prevent those invasions. Yet, like police departments elsewhere, the local law enforcers were equally subject to the changes they sought to prevent. The Eugene Police Department, as a result, has had a long and sordid history of scandal and internal division. However, despite its flaws and shortcomings, the Eugene public consistently supported and endorsed the increase in size and strength of its law enforcement body. Unlike other communities, East or West, there was little fear in Eugene of the creation of a "standing army." So long as the threat of social order was perceived to come from the outside, law enforcers were greeted as defenders of the city and supporters of the city's success. Yet the very growth and success sought through social order invited new problems and an urban expansion to which the city's law enforcers could not cope. In the end, however, the troubles that city leaders had so feverishly fought to keep outside came inside.

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