Oct 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 10

HOW IT ALL BEGAN The

HOW IT ALL BEGAN The first police cars in America showed up at the end of the 19th century. In fact, the very first police car anywhere was actually a wagon powered by electricity used in Akron, Ohio, in 1899. Of course, back in 1899, when the first documented use of a self-propelled vehicle for police business took place in the U.S., no one really knew where it will eventually lead. At the turn of the 19th century, police officers began using the electrically powered wagons as a mean of transport for them (hence the name squad car for today’s police cars). This reportedly first happened in Akron, Ohio, in the aforementioned year. There are no records of how the vehicle performed, or what it managed to do. Slowly, the fast-growing automotive industry engulfed law enforcement efforts as well. The road opened by Ford’s Model T was the signal for police departments to go the motorized way. The T became as popular with police agencies because they were cheap and just about the single viable choice at the time. The early versions of the T were powered by a front mounted 2.9l four-cylinder engine, developing a tiny troop of only 20.2 hp. This gave it a top speed of at most 45 mph (75 km/h) and ate as much as 18.7l of fuel every hundred kilometers (13 mpg). Despite this, being the only true choice on the market, made the T go into service with just about every law enforcement agency in the country by the 1920s. And it was common for the police to use the so-called paddy wagons to transport criminals of the day to jail. Most of the vehicles were enclosed bed trucks, used to carry both police officers and criminals. Regardless of the vehicle chosen for police work up until the 1920s, they had one big advantage, which also happened to be their huge disadvantage. A vehicle is faster than a horse, and definitely much faster than a human on foot, a trait which makes it ideal for chasing bad guys across the state. At first, early vehicles were used as a means to allow officers to get to the scene of a crime faster. Even in their crude state, they started being used for patrol purposes, with the so-called supervisors moving around the city to monitor their respective patrol districts. But how could one chase someone effectively, if one doesn’t know who they are, where they are, where they’re heading and what they have done? Being fast and mobile meant police spent more time on the field, but this in turn left them with no actual means of communicating with HQ or with other police officers. Moving in packs of two or more vehicles was as equally ineffective, as the main purpose of the police 88 The BLUES

The very first police car anywhere was a wagon powered by electricity used in Akron, Ohio, in 1899 The BLUES 89