Origins of the Police Department
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The old bridge road, with its many small bridges, was a choice spot for holdups, and a series of them culminating in the robbery of Richard Watrous, of the Internal Revenue Office, at the old tool shed on the side of the bridge road, forced the town to take action. On November 11, 1895, a special town meeting voted 23-20 to appropriate $800.00 for one or two persons to “act as watchmen or patrolmen to patrol the streets of the town during the night season.” On November 25, 1895, John C. Bogue, a former Watchman at the State Prison in Wethersfield, and at that time a Supernumerary Policeman with the Hartford Police Department, was sworn in as Patrolman, becoming East Hartford’s first policeman. His job was to patrol Main Street from Hartford Avenue to the railroad crossing. Patrolman Bogue was “uniformed in a helmet and waterproof ulster (long, loose overcoat) and wearing upon his breast a big new shield lettered:- East / POLICE / Hartford.”
In 1897, Patrolman Bogue was hired full-time by the Hartford Police Department, and the town appointed its second police officer, Robert W. “Kap” Kappenberg. In the same year, the first jail was built in Wells Hall, and the Town Court began to hear cases under its first judge, Justice John Stoughton. Citizens in the Meadow District demanded police protection shortly after the Kappenberg appointment, and Thomas F. Lloyd was named as the third town police officer. By 1905, the town had two regular policemen, Robert Kappenberg and Thomas Lloyd, and two supernumerary (part-time) officers, Thomas Galuly and Alexander Schmidt. The patrolmen’s job was to walk the main streets in the Center District from 8 PM until 4 AM, watching property and maintaining order. At the time there was no need for a daytime policeman, but the patrolman was on call should an emergency arise. Several beats were specified: on Main Street from Hartford Avenue to Linden Street; in the Meadow on Hartford Avenue from the bridge to Ash Street; on Governor Street from Hartford Avenue to Village Street; on Pleasant Street from Hartford Avenue to Ash Street; and in Burnside from 8 PM to 1 AM on Saturdays.
At the annual town meeting in 1904, James Martin, publisher of the American Enterprise, a local newspaper at the time, moved to appoint a committee of six men to draw up to rules to regulate the police force. The committee was approved and drew up police regulations in 1905. The patrolman’s salary was $75.00 per month.
The rules of police conduct were quite progressive. Among them were that, “all members of the force must be quiet, civil, and orderly in their deportment at all times, and in the discharge of duty must show command of temper, discretion, and patience, and when they are asked questions they should not answer in a short and careless manner, but with all possible attention and courtesy. They shall, in a respectful manner, give their names and numbers to all persons who inquire. They shall use their clubs only in self-defense or in cases of forcible or violent resistance to them. All the members of the force will carefully abstain from profane language, indecent expressions or illusions, and from real or apparent intimacy or familiarity with dissolute or vicious persons…the more gentlemanly the behavior of the member, the more they will be respected and sustained by public sentiment.” A police officer had to be able to speak, read, and write English, and had to be a citizen and qualified voter of East Hartford.
If a citizen had a complaint about an officer, he made it in writing to the selectmen, who named a time for a hearing and gave notice to all interested parties. After the close of the hearing, the selectmen had to render a decision on the case within 15 days.
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