Cops on the beat -- armed?

[Benzadmiral]

Maybe some of you have grandparents who could answer this.

I'm working on a new short story, set in January of 1933, in which one of the three major characters is a young cop on the Cleveland force. I know that uniformed cops walked their beats in those days, ranging up and down the streets in their district, checking for anything suspicious, rattling doorknobs, etc., and checked in with the station via call boxes.

My questions are: Would a beat cop in those days have been armed with anything more than a nightstick, and maybe even a blackjack? Would he have had a gun? If so, what caliber was standard issue in those days, .32 or .38? Or was there no standard, and a beat cop could choose his armament?

 

[Steve S]

38 special usually a Smith and Wesson .

 

[TallPaul]

Oh yeah, back in the Prohibition days I would think cops would definitely have been carrying guns.

 

[Gary Allan]

Why? Most of them were getting payoffs ..or visiting the speakeasy's themselves.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Well, if cops then did pack a .38, it won't ruin my plot. In fact it may make things a lot easier!

 

[Gary Allan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Official_Police

 

[Oldmoparguy1]

In the old movies from the 30's, the cops always had a 38 revolver with a 6" barrel. I've seen some that looked like colts, but would have to guess most were S&W's. Of course that was the movies, but they had to get their models from somewhere.

 

[Tempest]

I didn't have time to look closely, but this link may be of use:
http://books.google.com/books?id=-W5JD5T...result#PPA25,M1

 

[MarginCalled]

Glock revolver with 6 30-06 rounds IIRC

 

[Tempest]

Originally Posted By: MarginCalled
Glock revolver with 6 30-06 rounds IIRC

Ceramic Glock 7 to be precise.

 

[XS650]

If you contact

http://www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org/

someone should be able to give you an answer.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Dynamite stuff, Tempest! Most of the pics appear to be from prior to 1930, but the uniforms and call box details are fantastic!

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: XS650
If you contact

http://www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org/

someone should be able to give you an answer.


Grand idea, XS650. I've written to one of the board members, and I'll let you know what he had to say.

Of course this is a fictional work. But if I have actual facts to work with (or play with), it makes it stronger in my mind. Besides, I can just hear members of my writing critique group grumping that "You need to do your research," and I can grin and say, "I did."

 

[mechtech2]

Cops had revolvers then -issued or bought by themselves. It would be a .38 [actually .358 bore]. Probably a Smith and Wesson Military and Police model with a 4" barrel.

A .32 is an autoloader. A nice slim hideable carry gun favored by criminals. Probably a Colt.

 

[wavinwayne]

Originally Posted By: mechtech2
...A .32 is an autoloader...


Not necessarily. I owned a .32 revolver for many years. Sold it a few years ago to a co-worker.

 

[Tempest]

There is a .32 S&W that was very common and used in revolvers. It was rimmed as opposed to the rimless .32ACP.
http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/p32sw.html

Older revolvers of the 1930's might very well have been chambered for the .38 S&W, which is different (chambering and power) from the .38 Special.

 

[Camu Mahubah]

This link might be of some use. It contains a comparo of the Colt and Smith And Wesson revolvers used by police during the timeframe you speak of. The guy fires both of them. I'd take the Smith if it were me.


http://www.thegunzone.com/police_revolvers.html

 

[tom slick]

I've got a colt detective special in .38s&w, 3" barrel including the cylinder! It was used in the 60's though.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: XS650
If you contact

http://www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org/

someone should be able to give you an answer.

XS650,

I heard back from the Cleveland Police Museum's curator:

"You are correct in assuming that Cleveland Police Officers walked their beats in the early 1930s. They were armed with department issued fire arms. Either a Colt Police Positive .38 revolver or a Smith and Wesson .38. They carried their baton in the right hand while walking their beats. They reported in via call boxes which were located on nearly every other street corner in the city.

"In the 1930s there were up to 19 Police Precincts in the city. The area around St. Clair and West 3rd would have been in the 1st Precinct the headquarters of which was located at 2001 Payne Ave. (23-4 blocks East) and was also Police Headquarters at the time. The location was part of the business district around Public Square and on the fringe of the warehouse district in the 1930s. . . . There were 'units' assigned to 'downtown' and some of the other commercial areas along Euclid Ave. that worked out of headquarters."

Which, coincidentally, is just the way I pictured the setting, a business district on the edge of a seedier warehouse district.

Now all I have to do is struggle with the element that always gives me the most trouble: the plot!