August Vollmer
Encyclopedia
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
.
Youth
Vollmer was born in New Orleans to German immigrant parents, John and Philopine (Klundt) Vollmer. His father saw to it that he learned to box and swim, both of which he excelled at. Upon his father's death, his mother returned to GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
with her children for two years, after which she returned to New Orleans in 1886, but soon thereafter decided to move her family to San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. In July 1890, the Vollmer family moved across the bay to Berkeley.
Before he was 20, August helped organize the North Berkeley Volunteer Fire Department, and in 1897, was awarded the Berkeley Fireman medal. He supported his mother and the rest of his family as a partner in Patterson and Vollmer, a hay, grain, wood and coal supply store, at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Vine Street near a fire station north of downtown Berkeley.
In 1898, August enlisted in the United States Marines
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
, fighting in 25 battles in the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. Vollmer left the military in August 1899 and returned to Berkeley. In March 1900, he began working for the local post office.
A career in law enforcement
In 1904, he won fame as a local hero after he leapt onto a runaway railroad freight car on Shattuck Avenue in downtown BerkeleyDowntown Berkeley, California
Downtown Berkeley is the central business district of the city of Berkeley, California, United States, around the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, and extending north to Hearst Avenue, south to Dwight Way, west to Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and east to Oxford Street...
and applied its brakes, preventing a disastrous collision with a passenger coach loaded with commuters at the Berkeley Station
Berkeley Station
Berkeley Station was the name of the principal railroad station in Berkeley, California from 1878 to 1911. It was located in what is now downtown Berkeley, on Shattuck Avenue between University Avenue and Center Street. The tract is today occupied by Shattuck Square and Berkeley Square...
. This event led to his election as town marshal on April 10, 1905.
In 1907, Vollmer was re-elected town marshal. He was also elected president of the California Association of Police Chiefs, even though, by title, he was not yet a police chief himself. In 1909, Berkeley created the office of police chief, and Vollmer became the first to hold that office.
Drawing on his military experience, and his own research, Vollmer reorganized the Berkeley police force. Vollmer had discovered that very little literature existed in the United States on the subject of police work, so he located and read a number of European works on the subject, in particular, Criminal Psychology, by Hans Gross
Hans Gross
Hans Gustav Adolf Gross was an Austrian criminal jurist and an examining magistrate. He is believed to be the creator of the field of criminalistics; he taught as a professor at the Chernivtsi University, Prague University and the University of Graz, and established the Institute of Criminology in...
, an Austrian criminologist, and Memoirs of Vidocq, by Eugène François Vidocq
Eugène François Vidocq
Eugène François Vidocq was a French criminal and criminalist whose life story inspired several writers, including Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac...
, head of the detective division of the French police in Paris. He then set out on a program of modernization. He established a bicycle patrol and created the first centralized police records system, designed to streamline and organize criminal investigations. He established a call box network. And he trained his deputies in marksmanship.
In the ensuing years, Vollmer's reputation as the "father of modern law enforcement" grew. He was the first chief to require that police officers attain college degrees, and persuaded the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
to teach criminal justice
Criminal justice
Criminal Justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts...
. In 1916, UC Berkeley established a criminal justice program, headed by Vollmer. At Berkeley, he taught O.W. Wilson
Orlando Winfield Wilson
Orlando Winfield Wilson , also known as O.W. Wilson, was an influential leader in policing, having served as Superintendent of Police of the Chicago Police Department, chief of police in Fullerton, California and Wichita, Kansas, and authored several books on policing.-Background:Wilson was born on...
, who went on to become a professor and continued efforts to professionalize policing. This is often seen as the start of criminal justice
Criminal justice
Criminal Justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts...
as an academic field.
Vollmer was also the first police chief to create a motorized force, placing officers on motorcycles, and in cars so that they could patrol a broader area with greater efficiency. Radios were included in patrol cars. He was also the first to use the lie detector
Lie Detector
"Lie Detector" is a CD single by The Reverend Horton Heat. It was released in October 1998 on Sub Pop.-Personnel:*Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath - lead vocals, guitar*Jimbo Wallace - upright bass, vocals*Scott Churilla - drums, vocals...
, developed at the University of California, in police work. Vollmer supported programs to assist disadvantaged children, and was often criticized for his leniency towards petty offenders such as drunks and loiterers. He also encouraged the training and employment of female and African American police officers.
Later years
In 1921, Vollmer was elected president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.Vollmer left the Berkeley Police Department
Berkeley Police Department
The Berkeley Police Department is the municipal police department for the city of Berkeley, California, USA.-History:Shortly after Berkeley was incorporated in 1878, a town marshal and constables were elected to provide law enforcement. In 1909, the town marshal was appointed to be the first...
for a brief stint as police chief of the Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
from 1923-24, but returned upon being disillusioned by the extent of corruption and hostility towards leadership coming from outside the department.
Vollmer married Millicent Gardner in 1924. They had no children.
In 1926, Vollmer played himself in the silent serial Officer 444
Officer 444
Officer 444 is a 1926 film serial directed by Francis Ford and Ben F. Wilson.-Cast:* Ben F. Wilson - Officer 444* Neva Gerber - Gloria Grey* Ruth Royce - The Vulture* Al Ferguson - Dr. Blakely* Lafe McKee - Captain Jerry Dugan...
which was filmed in Berkeley under the direction of John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
's brother Francis Ford
Francis Ford (actor)
Francis Ford was a prolific film actor, writer, and director. He was the older brother of film director John Ford. He also appeared in many of John Ford's movies, including Young Mr. Lincoln and The Quiet Man.He starred in the 1912 two-reeler The Deserter by Thomas H. Ince and acted in over 400...
.
He retired from the Berkeley Police in 1932 as his eyesight began to fail. He was then appointed as a professor of police administration in the Political Science Department at the University of California, and went on to found its School of Criminology. He was also among the five people elected to be the first directors of the East Bay Regional Parks District in 1934. The same year Vollmer was awarded the Public Welfare Medal
Public Welfare Medal
The Public Welfare Medal is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "in recognition of distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public welfare." It is the most prestigious honor conferred by the Academy...
from the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
.
Vollmer became afflicted with Parkinson's Disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
late in life, and also cancer. He refused to be bed-ridden, and chose to end his own life at age 79 in 1955.
Vollmer on Drug Addiction
Vollmer was against police involvement with the problem of drug addiction. Vollmer wrote that enforcement of moralistic vice laws leads to police corruption and "engenders disrespect both for law and for the agents of law enforcement." Vollmer supported the establishment of federal distribution, at cost, of habit forming drugs.Tributes
- Bald Peak in the Berkeley HillsBerkeley HillsThe Berkeley Hills are a range of the Pacific Coast Ranges that overlook the northeast side of the valley that surrounds San Francisco Bay. They were previously called the "Contra Costa Range/Hills" , but with the establishment of Berkeley and the University of California, the current usage was...
was re-named Vollmer Peak in honor of August Vollmer.
- On January 28, 2004, Alameda County Sheriff Charles PlummerCharles PlummerCharles Plummer was an English historian, best known for editing Sir John Fortescue's The Governance of England, and for coining the term 'bastard feudalism'....
began a new Marine Patrol Unit to patrol the San Francisco Bay waters around the Oakland International AirportOakland International AirportOakland International Airport , also known as Metropolitan Oakland International Airport, is a public airport located south of the central business district of Oakland, a city in Alameda County, California, United States...
and the Port of OaklandPort of OaklandThe Port of Oakland was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. It is now the fifth busiest container port in the United States, behind Long Beach, Los Angeles, Newark, and Savannah...
using a 32-foot custom vessel named the August Vollmer.
External links
- Guide to the August Vollmer Papers at The Bancroft Library
- History, Berkeley Police Department
- Vollmer and the Polygraph
- Officer 444 at the Internet Movie Database
- Officer 444 at the Internet Archive
- Photo: August Vollmer, Volunteer Fireman (figure on right with colleague's hand on his shoulder)
- Formal Portrait