Central Records

12 June 1952

Made to Avoid “Droop”

The uniform that was modeled yesterday for the coordinating committee by Mrs. Dorothy Nippard, a police clerk in the Central Records Bureau, consisted also of the following:

A single-breasted, four-button jacket over a six-gore skirt, not cut, according to Mrs. Bang, on the bias so that it won’t “droop in odd places.” Both the skirt and the jacket are of French fashion serge, of a color slightly lighter than navy blue.

The hemline is 12 inches from the floor. The nylon stockings we’ll be of a regulation shade, with gauge and denier left up to the individual.

The cap has a cloth visor instead of the plastic type, thus allowing the wearer to dispense with the heavy leather band used by the hardier sex. Another reason for the visor, explained Mrs. Bang, was that it had proved more becoming two women.

12 September 1952

Police Information Desk Switched to Fifth Floor

The police department’s complaint and information desk, located for 26 years on the fourth floor of the headquarters building at Fayette Street and Fallsway, today was moved to the fifth floor of the same building.

Commissioner Beverly Ober said the move was designed to speed service in handling inquiries and complaints by putting the office near the Central Records and Communication Bureau, also on the fifth floor.

 

26 August 1952

The New Police Records System

New Yorkers, disturbed by a sharp jump in reported crimes for the first six months of this year, have learned that the increase is, in part, a paper increase. Crime is on the upgrade, to be sure, but equally pertinent is the fact that the purged and revitalized New York police force is now recording and reporting more of the crimes which are taking place. Before the shakeup, complaints were thrown away or buried to make the policing look better than it was.

Crime is also on the increase in Baltimore. The police records show it. And, like New York, part of the increase is a paper increase. But unlike New York, the paper increase is not a mark of past corruption. The Baltimore police have thoroughly modernized their methods of recording burglaries, assaults, car thefts and other crimes, which result in more complete reporting on the number of the crimes here.

No longer are the complaints of Baltimoreans handled in haphazard fashion by district stations and relayed to other departments and headquarters through uncertain channels. No longer are complaints open to the risk of becoming lost, blown out the window, rendered inaccurate in transit or borrowed from files and not returned.

No longer, for one pertinent example, does a car owner stand to be picked up and taken to the station in one district for driving a car, his own car, which was reported stolen but subsequently recovered in another district. The reorganized Baltimore police force is letting its east hand know what its west hand is doing.

Until recently Baltimore police records (complaints, criminal data, and the like) were kept in seventeen, and in some cases, nineteen places about the city. A given set of facts had to be tracked down among district headquarters, departments, bureaus, and agencies wasting precious time in law enforcement and made it easy for officers to overlook or never hear of facts which might have aided them. As an added handicap, district men and special enforcement officers had to devote precious time to record keeping, and secretarial work instead of fighting crime.

Police Commissioner Beverly Ober explains now that when he took office, a little more than three years ago, he soon found that only parcel alliance could be placed on the accuracy of the available records. He persuaded the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to send experts to Baltimore and prepare a report on what we were doing wrong with our local filing system. The result was the determination to have a Central Records Bureau. Which was started in January 1951, and at the time of this writing was already in use? Although it was short of any id of official completion.

Hand-in-hand with the Central Records System is the Central Complaint set up which made police headquarters the actual working center of all Baltimore City Police activity. The decentralization which used to place an administrative office in the district stations is gone, along with the district police blotters. Headquarters hears all and orders all, and the effect is to make Baltimore seem truly big time in police matters.

The fifth floor of headquarters was the latest word in police command posts. Activity centers were all within two glass-enclosed switchboard rooms, one handling the hourly reports of patrolman from police boxes and other handle emergency calls (S.A. 1200] and communications to and from the radio police. A third switchboard was devoted to administrative calls (M.U. 1600), and a fourth, now in the making, will filter incoming calls, separating administrative matters from emergencies and channeling matters of command decisions to officers in the higher echelons.

The visitor’s impression is one of quiet, controlled urgency as scorers of lights flick on and off along switchboards and the voices of uniformed men talking into headphones drowned out individual words and leave only a staccato series of unintelligible sounds. Behind each switchboard operator, there is a bank of slowly turning Dictaphone roles, their bright yellow Kahler A constant reminder that everything is being recorded. No longer can it be said that a certain complaint was not received or that a patrolman did not get a certain order dashed it is all there on wax: who said what and what time he said it.

Baltimore and Baltimore alone also had a wire recording device for broadcasting reports of stolen cars. The description of the cars and other pertinent information goes on to a tape, much as the time the weather is recorded on a tape by the telephone company. Every patrolman who calls in then here’s the stolen car report automatically, ending the possibility of human forgetfulness in spreading the word on car thefts.

The keys to centralization uniformity and the elimination of the many chances for human error, duplication, and oversight. All complaints must be cleared through headquarters, where each is given a permanent number.

Each policeman on the street and each desk man has a uniform set of questions which he must ask, and A uniform complaints sheet on which to report the answers. The original report eased in the handwriting of the responsible officer because it is good police administration to keep it that way, but once it is typed up, all subsequent copies are made either mechanically or photographically, and the many of the inevitable errors of human transcription.

The first copies of reports coming from one police district are immediately put through duplicating machine, and 10 copies are distributed to other districts and heads of bureaus. The reports are then photographed, reduced to file card size, for the prominent records. There are still chances for mistakes, of course. But with the headquarters receiving all complaints, numbering all complaints and filing all complaints, Commissioner Ober believes that he is on top of past trouble.

The central records bureau, under Capt. and Clarence O. Forster an inspector Fred Al Ford, has become a model for other cities. Only St. Louis, Washington and possibly Los Angeles are in the same class as Baltimore. The names and police records of some two million persons are on file and in an easily accessible form [available to a limited number of persons only, since police records are no longer open to the public]. Police records for the past 50 years had been microfilmed and indexed. A file of 40,000 aliases have been accumulated dashed something Baltimore has never had before.

Perhaps most impressive, human memory is being replaced but IBM Machines. Every day the lightning-fast fingers of parole operators are punching cards with the holes which for ever-recorded names, crimes, descriptions, places last seen, except from. The date is going to come when the homicide squad, for example, will no longer have to wonder where they may have heard or read about a sex criminal of such and such a general description who works as a labor and uses a knife. If the name and pertinent data have it any time been punched on a card that’s on any one of thousands upon thousands of cards dashed them the scene can pick out the pollard in last time it takes an old-time desk sergeant to Iraq is brains.

In fact, the latest developments in business machines hold a much more impressive promise, when applied to police work. Eventually, a missing scene can be asked for a list of safe-breakers, white, slim build, about 50, known to be in the Middle Atlantic area, with A penchant for nitroglycerin, and the machine will come back with the names and all pertinent data on likely prospects, including their photographs and fingerprints!

Baltimore is new police centralization is too new to show positive results which can be proved statistically. It should save Manpower and provide more policing for the tax dollar. It should give Baltimoreans faster and more reliable police protection. It should and Abel investigating officers to get the police tattered and need, when they needed, in more accurate and complete form. And it should and Abel Commissioner Ober to get a clearer picture of where law enforcement is weak and what it will take to eliminate the deficiencies.

Philadelphia, at least, thinks the Baltimore System looks so good that it wants to duplicate for itself, including the actual floor plans of the Baltimore setup. But the efficiency of the system in actual practice is dependent in part on the public, which can foul up the best of police plans by calling the wrong numbers and saying, “I want a policeman a mealy,” with no further details.

The number to call in emergencies is SAratoga 1200, with some indication of the nature of the emergency. If the complaint is less than urgent dashed a parking dull, for example, dashed the number to call is MUlberry 1600, which doesn’t tie up the emergency switchboard and the police radio system.

 

15 September 1952

Police Launch New Filing Method

The Baltimore Police Department today began a new method of reporting crime statistics with the issuance of a seven-page report- the first one prepared by the Central Records Bureau. The document compares the incidence of nine types of crime between January 1 and July 31 of this year with a like period last year.

Police Commissioner Beverly Ober said the department is now able to send “intelligent" information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation which. under an act of Congress in 1930 was established as a clearinghouse for crime data from all over the nation.

Old Method Misleading

Under the old method, the commissioner said, some crime fell into categories which were misleading. both from the standpoint of efficiency and administration. Commissioner Ober said the new type of report has met with the approval of the Criminal Justice Commission and other interested parties. The document also contains a plea for citizens to immediately and accurately report offenses to police. Policemen, the report states, are often hampered by complaints which are incomplete, and the arrest of an offender is sometimes delayed by the failure of the citizen to report a crime because they thought they were in insignificant.

The report on crimes committed

During the first even month of this year, as compared with a similar period last year follows:

Murder-during the first seven months of 1951. 45 murders were reported, 41 of them closed and four unsolved. This year there were 53 reported, 46 closed and seven unsolved.

Rape-Last year 93 cases were reported. 88 closed and 7 unsolved. 1 This year 109 reported, 89 closed 1 and 20 unsolved.

Robbery-Last ear 304 reported, 153 closed, 151 unsolved. This year 450 reported, 193 closed and 257 unsolved.

Larceny-Last year 2,937 reported, 1.287 closed. ,1 ,650 unsolved. This year 3 ,821 reported, 1,299 closed and 2,522 unsolved.

Purse snatching Last year 116 1 reported. 29 closed. 87 unsolved. This year 143 reported, 23 closed, 120 unsolved.

Pickpocket - Last year 25 reported. 8 closed 17 unsolved This year 21 reported, 4 closed, 17 unsolved.

 

3 September 1953

Police Planned New Divisions of Districts

Crime sorting system to be employed in redrawing lines

The Baltimore police department’s new system of charting crime - and where it hits - will be used as a basis for an eventual redrawing of the department’s posts, bailiwicks and district lines, Colonel Beverly Ober, the police commissioner, disclosed yesterday.

For little more than a year, every crime, from murder for a street brawling, has been reported to an indexed in the department’s Central Records Bureau.

It has given the department a concise Baedecker on which neighborhoods have heavy crime rates and which are relatively free from lawlessness.

The Police Force Is Scientifically

And it has helped the department to deploy its forces scientifically so that the policemen are stationed where they are most likely to be needed.

In time, Colonel Ober explained, new district lines will be drawn and the district will be subdivided into the alley wicks and posts on the bases of actual needs of the districts.  This, in turn, he added, will require a recalculation of the department’s Manpower needs.

The uniform crime reporting system has been in effect since 1 July 1952.

Therefore, that just compiled reports of crime incidents door in July 1953, gave the department its first accurate comparison with the crime rate of the corresponding month of the previous year under the uniform system.

Shows Decline in Crime

It showed a decline in the crime rates in seven of the ten major classifications listed by the department.

What it did not show was that between July 1952 and July 1953, the department’s Manpower was strengthened considerably.  And most of the new strength went into the manning of Foot Post.

By using its modern system of charting crime incidence, the commissioner was able to concentrate his reinforcements where they would be most effective.

The FBI made a survey of Baltimore’s crime bookkeeping in 1949 -and found a hodgepodge of records that were to interpret intelligently.

The subsequent FBI report was highly critical.

Policemen, it said, “do not consistently obtain detailed and accurate information concerning each arrest.”

Six Different Addresses

It found, for example, one group of arrest records “tide together at headquarters as representing one individual.” One William Smith.  There were six different arrest cards in that “one individual’s” portfolio.  He had six different addresses.  His age ranged from 52 to 63.  He was married twice and single four times.

The revision of the department system was based on recommendations in that report.

It has taken about 2 ½ years in developing the new reporting procedure.

During that period, Colonel Ober said, “there has been a gradual but consistent increase in reported crime in the city, which was to have been expected, and it is absolutely and possible to determine exactly what percentage of the increase was due to fact and what percentage was due to accurate records.”

Every Incident Reported

Before the development of the new system, the district captains would send in reports to headquarters only on crimes they thought worth reporting.  Now every incident is reported and tabulated.

The following table gives a comparison of the cases reported last July with those of July 1952, the first month of the “new order”:

Crime                                                    1952                                       1953
Murder                                                        2                                             5
Manslaughter                                             2                                             1
Rape                                                          25                                           22
Aggravated assault                                180                                         169
Burglary                                                   507                                         397
Larceny                                                    866                                         801
Purse snatching                                        17                                             8
False pretense                                           91                                         136
Auto theft                                                 463                                         340

Those figured cannot be interpreted to mean that the crime rate is dropping or rising or static, Colonel Ober explained.  Crime, like the tide, ebbs, and flows.  It is seasonal.  So, he added, many more statistics must be collected door in many months to compile overall figure’s which will the end themselves to intelligent interpretation      

 

8 April 1955

Beverly Ober

Colonel Beverly Ober was a man of military bearing.  Before he began his long career as a police administrator, he had served a protracted period in the National Guard and had achieved the rank of Colonel.  Even after he was well out of military life the title stuck, and he reflected deeply ingrained habits of thought and action.

As superintendent of the State Police, he had an essentially military organization to and direct.  The Baltimore Police Department, of which he had been the head of for six years, was far less military in character, but Colonel Ober managed to impart to the men in the service a certain soldierly bearing, and his discipline was of a semi-military quality.

In both posts, Colonel Ober’s administration was marked by reorganization and expansion.  The city police department, especially, has been greatly changed since he took over.  A Central Records Bureau, a Crime Laboratory, a new Communication System and a substantial enlargement of the force altered working conditions for the better.  The hiring of the additional patrolmen, as of additional clerks and women Crossing Guards, has provided a needed enlargement of manpower.  Colonel Ober’s last project – one for the construction of new station houses – was approved by the voters at the election in November but has not actually taken physical form.

Display all improvements in police work, the amount of crime in the city seems to have increased.  This does not necessarily mean that the police were ineffective, for no one could say what would be the crime rate if the police had gone on in the old paths.  What can be said is that Colonel Ober left a department much more efficiently organized then he found it and that his successor will be able to start at a higher level.

A man who approached his tasks with military directness, Colonel Ober was blunt of speech.  These qualities sometimes upset those who dealt with him, but they were often admirable – as when he broke up the disturbances at the public schools last fall.

Had he lived, Colonel Ober would have been reappointed – Governor McKeldin confirmed this yesterday.  His sudden death deprives the community of a trusted public servant and creates a vacancy that will not be easily filled.

13 June 1955

 Mr. Hepbron’s Job

Under the leadership of the late Colonel Beverly Ober, the Baltimore police department moved rapidly ahead, from an organizational standpoint.  A Central Communications and records system was set up, District Stations were reorganized, workweeks were reduced and pay increased, new patrolmen were added to the force and plans for new station houses developed.  Colonel Ober also broke through the cliques which are likely to form in any police force and fashioned a chain of command more responsive to him as the Police Commissioner.  He, in turn, stood behind his men whenever they were criticized.

The new Police Commissioner, Mr. James M.  Hepbron will take over a force which is more efficiently organized and better disciplined than when Colonel Ober came in.  He will have a Chief Inspector Fred Ford an able-bodied first assistant.  Also, thanks to the Central Records Bureau, he will have a much better idea where policing problems are most critical, and he can deploy his men accordingly adding the needed improvements.

With crime steadily increasing, the operations of a police force must always be fluid and subject to constant re-examination.  The whole question of Radio Cars vs. Foot Patrolman is a continued one.  The problem of Traffic Control and the use of able-bodied men to blow whistles when traffic lights change and placing tickets on illegally parked cars must be studied and studied again, as well as the distribution of men in accordance with potential trouble spots and the strengthening of both the Crime Prevention and Crime Detection Sections of the department.

The job cut out for Mr. Hepbron is in no way an easy one, however much Colonel Ober improved the police department.  He has to win the loyalty of his men and at the same time be firm against infringements of the rights of the citizens and instances of brutality.  He will also, almost certainly, have to fight against moves to organize the force along labor-union lines and to monkey with pay and pension systems.  The city has few jobs as demanding as the one that Mr. Hepbron will soon take on.  We wish him all possible success and plenty of public support when he assumes the reins.

 

Baltimore Police records all started with these Docket/Log Books. We have the following and are always looking for more. This type of record keeping ended in 1951 when we went to more of loose leaf system and started a Central Records Bureau. 

 

1869 - Middle District Log

1876 - Rounds book Eastern, Middle, Western, Southern

1876 - Eastern, Southern, Northeast, Middle, Western, Northwestern

1878 - Marshal's Log

1878 - Northwestern District Log

1880 - Northeastern District Log

1892 - Marshal report Log Book

1896 - Central Log Book

1902 - Central District Log

1907 - Southern District Log

1908 - Northern District Log

1908 - Board of Police Commissioner Log Book

1909 - Northern District Log

1911 - Northern District Log

1915 - Northern District Log

1917 - Northern District Log

1918 - Board of Police Commissioner Log Book

1919 - Commissioners Log book

1924 - Southwestern District Log

1924 - Northern District Log

1926 - Southeastern District Log

1940 - Southwestern District Log

1946 - Northern District Magistrate Docket

1947 - Northern District Arrest Docket

1948 - Wagon book

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