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1900's Excerpts from "Wichita Police Department 1871-2000"

The annual report of the police department for 1900 suggested the difficulty of making police work popular:  ‘We are often called upon to settle family differences, give advice in matter of marriage and divorce, and enforce the chicken ordinance, and advise on the subject of dogs running at large, and many other things that tries a man’s soul.’ [sic]  Still, it was claimed that the twenty men in Wichita police uniforms were ‘a force as gentlemanly and efficient as any city in the land.’  The public, however, had questions on both counts.  There was a police scandal in 1903 involving alleged extortion by the chief of police.  In 1905 police chief Frank Burt commented that ‘everyone has heard the Police Department discussed and ‘cussed,’ and the Chief of Police especially, accused of every crime that a two by four policeman could think of’.” Truly the 1900’s were fighting years where the Women’s Christian Temperance Union ladies fought the demon rum and teachers and parents fought for more and better schools.  The century opened with a bar smashing by Carrie Nation on December 27, 1900.  She stormed the Carey Hotel armed with metal bars and rocks where she proceeded to rake glasses off the bar, destroy the mirror behind the bar and do other damage to pictures.  Such was the zeal, determination and strength of her six foot, 185 pound frame that the fifty-four year old woman was not easily subdued.  Avoiding a swing at his head with her cane, City Detective O. Park Massey arrested Carrie Nation.  She was charged with malicious destruction of property, however, the case was later dismissed in court. On July 17, 1905, Wichita set the automobile speed limits at 8 to 14 miles an hour.  A month later, the Wichita Chief of Police issued an order to shoot tires of automobile speeders. During 1908, the street gas lights were connected to the natural gas lines; and an automobile was involved in what is believed to have been the city’s first hit-and-run accident.  A car hit a horse and buggy and the driver fled, leaving the car on the street. Coler Sim got a ticket in 1908 for going over fifteen miles per hour  on Seneca.  When the arresting officer found that the speed limit there was twenty, he was disgusted that such speeds should be allowed and asked that the ordinance be changed.  Also included in the History Book: Carrie Nation A. A. Hyde Women’s Christian Temperance Union Senator John J. Ingalls Speed Limits Dalton Gang The Infant Air Plane Industry

Excerpts from "Wichita Police Department 1871-2000"  Interested in the entire history of the Wichita Police Department?  "Wichita Police Department 1871-2000" is available for purchase outside the department.