April 2012 Dallas Police Shield

Dallas Police Shield April 2012

The new year of 1941 saw one of the most drastic, if bloodless, shake-ups in the history of the Dallas Police Department. This was according to an article in the DMN that seems vaguely familiar and of course has been done many times since this article was written. Shake-ups are nothing new .Just the rumor of one, real or imaginary cause’s aniexity among the ranks and much locker room banter. It falls under the catch-all term, “for the good of the department.” Many times in my career it was just that, a rumor. In Tactical, later SWAT, it seems like there was always a rumor that one squad or another would be done away with. Or one guy would mysteriously have been transferred since you last saw him yesterday. In the late seventies it had happened in a big way however, with several units being disbanded. That was the basis of many of us guys sweating out the daily details waiting for the dreaded announcement that never came.

Chief of Detectives Will Fritz announced the re-assignments of 22 detectives in the bureau. None of the detectives would lose their ranks, equivalent to a sergeant today, but many who had been in their jobs for years, or who had regular partners, would be given other assignments and associates.

Fritz said that the shake-up had the goal of more efficiency in the detective division, although the previous year’s record was exceptional. He said that the change was also aimed at “freshening” the viewpoint of detectives who may have grown stale in their particular jobs and to give them a more rounded experience.

The burglary and theft division, as well as the pawnshop detail, auto-theft, and bunko squads were all affected. Fritz went on to say that the transfers were not as a result of dissatisfaction and should not be seen as punishment.

Strangely, the Homicide Division was not affected.

On January 9, 1941 the DMN had an article that reported that the recent change in shifts, involving the “six detail plan,” has been abandoned. The cause was red tape, and the overlapping work hours resulted in “lost motion,” according to DPD. The new shifts would basically be the old shifts before the change. Chief Welch said that 23 patrol squads would cruise the city during the peak crime hours. Not surprisingly this was 5:00pm to 1:00am, much as it is today. Nothing changes much in police work. The basics are the same. The report didn’t say anything about the revolutionary “six detail plan,” or what it entailed. Or for that matter, what newly minted and or promoted whiz kid thought it up.

On a tragic note, the DMN reported that escalating racial issues in Dallas had gone violent. On January 14, 1941 they reported that two dynamite blasts had been reported between 10:00pm and 10:24pm on Monday night. These blasts occurred within four blocks of each other. One was at 2815 Metropolitan. While DPD officers were at that location investigating, another blast was heard. The other was found to be located at 4000 Myrtle Street. No persons were injured, but the blasts reportedly were heard as far away as SMU.  The neighborhood had experienced at least 6 bombings in the last 6 months.

The violence was a result of ongoing racial disputes between black and white residents of the area. Earl Jones, who was black, and was living at 4000 Myrtle, had been targeted several months previously by the unknown suspects. He was the unsuccessful plaintiff in a Federal Court suit in which an injunction to restrain the City from seeking to obtain his removal from the street was denied by Judge William H. Atwell.

Jones said that in this case, he heard what sounded like a bundle of newspapers land on his front porch. He opened the front door and saw a smoking fuse. He slammed the door shut and, with his family, ran out the back door just as the explosion blasted a hole in the front porch, buckled a wall, lifted the porch ceiling, and blew in the front door. Jones ran around to the front yard and saw a “old model coupe”