September, 1945 saw the surrender of the Japanese and WWII
was officially over. The VA says however that any member of the military who
joined up or was serving by December 31, 1946 is a WWII veteran. This is in
some part because of the job of having enough soldiers, sailors and airman to
bring the millions of service men and women home from overseas. There’s also
the fact that the U.S. had so many military personnel on occupation duty in
Europe and the Far East. That and also the fact that millions of civilians were
starving in the countries affected by
war, and the U.S. being the breadbasket of the world, kept the draft up and the
recruitment offices busy for several years.
In Dallas however, the City was gearing up the first Labor
Day since the end of wartime gas rationing in years. Chief Carl Hansson said
that “This is the first Labor Day since 1941 that workers have not been asked
to stay on the job as a war-winning measure.”
Soon after Labor Day Chief Hansson announced plans to
institute immediately a personnel improvement program for the DPD. The first
post-wartime measure was a plan under which all new police officers would
receive six weeks concentrated training after passing a civil service
examination. He said that he has contacted the commanding officers of many
experienced DPD officers now in military service in efforts to have them
released as soon as possible from military service. He has also received
authorization to hire 26 additional men. Many of the war-time officers hired on
a part time basis will be given the opportunity to take civil service exams that
would lead to permanent commissions.
The Chief went on to say that because of the anticipated post-wartime
population boom in Dallas as servicemen and women come home from the war, 15 new
police motorcycles are being ordered for traffic control and that besides the
26 new hires approved, there are vacancies for about 25 more that he hopes the
City will approve soon.
The war was officially over, but police work obviously had
not changed dramatically since 1941. At the Rialto Theater at 1525 Elm St. an
alarmed bystander called the police after a man yelled “hold up!” Squad cars swarmed
the front of the theater to arrest the hold- up suspect. It didn’t take long
however for the rocket scientist to explain that he had been arguing with the candy
counter girl, she had threatened to call police if he didn’t leave and he
yelled ‘hold up!’ when she reached for the phone. Yes, some things never
change.
At the Rockyfeller Hamburger System at 219 West Jefferson, a
customer put money into a cigarette machine. When he pulled the lever, the wrong
brand dropped out. The person who obviously had no major issues going on in his
life except this one at the moment, became incensed, shoved the machine over
and began stomping it. Police were called of course.
In another story and since many people were still going without
tires because of war-time rationing, Mrs. J.L. Beeson of 3010 Oliver came out
on her back porch and found a brand new tire lying in her back yard. She’s not
sure where it came from and called police…of course.
A soldier stationed at Love Field reported to DPD that he
had $800.00 stolen from him by a pickpocket. He’s not too worried he said
because the bills were from Belgium, Iceland, Holland, Germany, France, Egypt,
England, Hawaii and Japan. The only bad thing was that there were autographs of
all of his buddies he had served with were written on the bills.
A 25 year old male stole a car from a used car lot at 5323
East Grand Avenue. The owner’s son saw him leave, police were called and Officers
C.W. Peters and Billy Phillips arrested the driver not far away.
A call came into DPD headquarters that a badly decomposed body
had been found in a vacant lot on Scyene Rd. A squad of detectives went to
scene immediately. They however scared the dead body to wake him up it seems.
Three people had called and said that this person had been dead for some time
but when officers woke him up he insisted that he had just been sleeping. He
was put in jail for being drunk.
The owners of Howard Laundry and Cleaners, 3101 Commerce St.
are not particularly mad at the burglar who broke in and stole seven pairs of
pants from the store early Saturday. What really angers them is that the
suspect kicked out a large window pane to enter the store, when there was a
hole next to the window equally as large next to it that needed to be repaired!
So it was in September, 1945.
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