![]() In 1944, a large fight erupted at the top of the hill and one of the military police officers shot at a soldier. In order to deal with these soldiers, military police officers provided additional patrol. The war years brought problems to the quiet City of Daly City, as soldiers awaiting transfer out of San Francisco would take streetcars to the "Top of the Hill" area and get drunk at the Hilltop Lodge. In the words of one police officer, "Everybody else in town beat us to the calls." The Daly City Police Department was soon part of the same radio network as the San Francisco Police Department. The calls for service were handled by radio station KGO. The police department had one police car with a radio. Finally, in 1939, the new City Hall opened. The depression hit and construction was halted for five years on the new permanent City Hall. There were two holding (jail) cells in the temporary station. The officers made many of the improvements. During the eleven years that followed, the police department was based out of a converted plumbing shop on Mission Circle. New Locationġ928 brought progress to Daly City with destruction of the old wooden City Hall and Police Station and the construction of a new City Hall. From 1924 to 1928, the Police Department experienced a 25 % increase in staffing, growing from four to five officers. The Police Department occupied part of the first floor and most of the basement. The first City Hall and Police Station was in an old wooden building at 75 Wellington Avenue. There were numerous championship boxing matches during this era at what is now the corner of Mission and School Streets. Otto Schramm went on to a successful career with the California Highway Patrol, eventually working as a sergeant in the Redwood City office. When an officer wasn't close enough to answer, a local person would help out by telling the police that the phone box was ringing. This phone box provided the only communication with Daly City Police officers. There was a phone box at Hillside and Mission Streets. The article is based on an interview with Otto Schramm, a police officer in Daly City in the 1920's. CommunicationsĪccording to an article in the Daly City Record, published on September 25, 1963, "communications were 'kind of nil' at the top of the hill" in 19. Chief Doyle's luck ran out, however, when he was struck and killed by a street car on December 19, 1936. The suspect, oddly enough, had been an officer with the Daly City Police Department for four years before mental illness apparently took hold. According to newspaper accounts, Chief Doyle experienced tremendous luck when a suspect's shotgun shell failed to discharge and he escaped an otherwise certain death. He had three men under his command, one of whom was Barney Hilton, who would go on to become chief for a short while. In 1924, the Chief of the Daly City Police Department was Jack Doyle. Those guilty of over-imbibing were banished from the saloons for thirty days and the City Judge directed the Marshal to enforce such orders. By 1914, Daly City had two saloons where non-residents of Daly City could drink and gamble. The four men had plenty to do, as Daly City had become a real boomtown after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The first record of law enforcement efforts in the City began shortly thereafter with the employment of four men under the direction of a Marshal. The City of Daly City was officially incorporated by permission of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors on March 22, 1911. ![]()
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