October 1959 - San Francisco Police Officers Association

[ike can save your life
Proper care and feeding of Mike and his brother, Little Mike, is important - they're your
closest friends in the radio car.
OCTOBER, 1959
The P.A. switch should be placed in
the down position when you wish to
broadcast Police Communications. This
may be desired when you have to leave
the car but want to hear the broadcasts
coming over the air. With the
switch in this position, both mikes are
dead.
Mike's frequency arrangement is such
that it may be compared to a telephone
party line having 75 or more subscribers.
Obviously only one person can talk
over the circuit at a time and he understood
by the operator. Often when
the officer fails to get acknowledgement
the first time, it is simply because the
circuit is already in use. The transmission
is being covered.
With this in mind, then, there is one
big DO NOT that should be pointed
out. DO NOT USE THE MICRO-
PHONE FOR UNNECESSARY
CONVERSATION.
Tragic Consequences
Have you ever thought of what the
results might be for using the mike
unnecessarily? This incident could happen.
How would you feel if you caused
this tragedy:
A Taraval car is on patrol in the area
of Fleishacker's. It is a fairly quiet night
in that time of year known as Indian
Summer. "Nothin's doin'" as the saying
goes. Joe, a nice guy, just came into
the business, is assigned to Taraval 4.
He is cruising down Sloat Blvd. when
he views a suspicious man lurking in
the bushes at the side of the road near
a bus stop. There have been a number
of strong-arm robberies at bus
stops in this area so Joe flips the P.A.
switch into the down position and
jumps out of the car to investigate.
"Come out of those bushes, NOW!"
says Joe.
Police Personality of the month
One of the last of the real two-fisted
"San Francisco" cops is a veteran Inspector
George Dyer, Sr.
One of nine children, George was
born at Twenty-first and A 1 a b a in
Streets. His father was Chief of the
Southern Pacific Railroad Police Force.
George entered the Police Department
in 1925 and, during the next
twenty fabulous years, served well in
every phase of the job: radio cars and
heats in the Richmond and Southern;
Special Duty Man at the Southern;
Chinatown Detail; Flying Squad; Bureau
of Inspectors.
Old timers tell stories of Dyer's courage.
The time he leaped through a skylight
in the Richmond Dist. to disarm
a crazed, shotgun wielding murderer:
the numerous gun battles with bandits
and killers. Three Meritorious Conduct
Awards and scores of commendations
fill his personnel file.
The general strike of 1934 had erupted
into violence. Dyer, coupled with Al
Torre (now inspector,) to form a two
man police force on the Embarcadero.
Troublemakers who were willing to
tangle with a platoon of policemen
turned tail and fled when the word was
passed: "Look out, here come Dyer and
Torre 0'
The only response is the loud report
of a gun. Joe staggers backward and
falls over the front seat of the radio
car. Everything is hazy to him, it is
getting dimmer and dimmer and his
senses are reeling. He has only enough
strength to reach for the mike and make
one appeal.
"Taraval ... 4 ...I'm shot
Sloat and Great Highway" ... 406
406."
Joe is bleeding to death from a gunshot
wound in the stomach. At the
same time as Joe's one and only transmission,
Pete says to Ed: "Did you take
the orders?" "Yah," says Ed, "I'm
hack already." "You hear a 406." "No,
I didn't hear anything." The transmission
was covered. Joe died before anyone
ever discovered him missing. He
might have lived if he were found in
time. Pete, realizing what had happened,
says: "What can I say? What
can you say."
Say nothing! Unless it is important
to police business and then make it:
CLEAR, BRIEF, TO THE POINT.
In World War II, a vicious hoodlum
element had sprung up. Dyer was
chosen to head a special flying squad to
fight fire with fire. Sweeping through
the Mission, Tenderloin and Fillmore,
the squad broke the backs of the mobs.
Many an ill-mannered ruffian underestimated
the 5'9" Dyer and nursed a
broken jaw in his jail cell.
During his twenty years in the Bureau
he has worked the Bunco, Auto
and General Work's Details. He now
serves as a right hand man to Lieut.
Donald Scott in General Works.
It is a luckless culprit whose case
is assigned to Dyer. The gates of San
Quentin have closed on many who
would match wits with this master detective.
George's brother, Jack, long a Sergeant
in the B. S. S. Gambling Detail,
died in 1952.
Inspector Dyer resides, with his wife,
May, in the Sunset. His son, George,
Jr., ten years in the business, is assigned
to the Burglary Detail.
A model for young police officers is
George Dyer. Soft-spoken, mild mannered
and gentle; but a fearless fighter
when called upon to defend law and
order.