|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The 1940s During 1940, additions were built onto
headquarters, including an auto shop, larger dormitories, and an indoor
25-yard pistol range. Sergeant
Strosnider was instrumental in the design of what was needed in the
building. The garages were
set up so a motorcycle could drive in one door and out another without
having to turn around. The
building was built in Spanish mission style in conformity with the line
of the existing headquarters building.
The legislative session of 1941 brought some
changes to the laws governing the New Mexico State Police.
The laws of 1941 further spelled out the qualifications and
requirements for state police officers.
The only one exempt from this law would be the chief of the
department. The maximum age
for joining the state police was lowered to 35.
The law also stipulated that the number of supervisors could not
exceed 25% of the total number of the commissioned officers.
It also outlined a promotional criteria, and for the first time
required patrolmen to take an oath of allegiance to the State of New
Mexico and the United States. The laws of 1941 gave the State Police Board the authority to divide the state police into two divisions, one to be known as the Uniform Division and one to be known as the Criminal Division. New laws required that any appointee would be required to attend, for a period of 30 days, a school of instruction at state police headquarters in Santa Fe. The last recruit school prior to this year had been held at the end of 1937. During to World War II, several state policemen went into military service, and recruit schools were suspended. Between the years of 1937 and 1946, state policemen were appointed and trained on the job. The Division of Field Administration of the New
Mexico State Police had a name change and was called the Division of
Courtesy and Information of the State of New Mexico. It was during the 1940s when the department started
phasing out the motorcycles and going to automobiles.
The department kept six of the motorcycles on hand and they were
mainly used for escorts and spare units when the officer’s cars were
being repaired. An officer
escorting paint stripping crews used one of the motorcycles up until the
end of the decade. In early 1941, the clouds of war loomed over the
world and the United States was preparing for the worst.
It was up to the state police to be in charge of planning and
enforcing the black out drills in throughout the state and it conducted
the first statewide civilian mobilization test in the nation. More than 100 state police and mounted patrolmen enforced the
blackout regulations on the 60 miles of US Highway 85 between Santa Fe
and Albuquerque. That
operation constituted only a small part of activity in simulated war
bombing conditions throughout the state. On the Santa Fe-Albuquerque highway, traffic would be slowed down to 30 miles per hour at 7:00 p.m., and 20 miles an hour at 8 p.m., and then there was a blackout requirement when all traffic had to halt and extinguish its lights. Air raid warnings, from civilian spotters, would be directed from a control point in Santa Fe as Army bombers quartered the state from the Albuquerque Air Base in a simulated wartime invasion. The signal for the blackout to start was when Chief Summers and Captain Martinez fired tracers into the air using .45 automatic pistols. The tracers would be fired so that they formed a "V." On April 27, 1941, the speed limit was set at 40
miles per hour after President Rooseveltrequested all states' governors
to do so. New Mexico was
first to do this. However,
the new speed limit was essentially unenforceable.
Drivers could not be punished unless it could be proven they
intended to break the new speed limit. In September of 1941, because of wartime gas and
materials rationing, the speed limit was changed to 35 miles per hour to
prolong the life of tires. There
was no state law regarding the speed limit, so officers could not
prosecute violators. When
an officer spotted a motorist speeding and driving recklessly, he would
report them to the local Rationing Board and the violator would not be
issued gas ration cards. On November 4, 1941, the New Mexico State Police Criminal Division was formed with Captain Roy Vermillion in charge and three other officers spread throughout the state. The officers wore civilian clothes and drive unmarked cars. On November 4, 1941, the New Mexico State Police
Criminal Division was formed with Captain Roy Vermillion in charge and
three other officers spread throughout the state. The officers
wore civilian clothes and drive unmarked cars. When Governor Dempsey took office on January 1, 1943, Chief Summers resigned his position as Chief of the State Police. Governor Dempsey appointed Frank Young as Chief. Chief Young was the former chief of the Roswell Police Department and former Chavez County Sheriff. The new chief decided the department was top heavy in rank. There were one chief, six captains, one lieutenant, seven sergeants, two patrolmen at Headquarters, and 16 patrolmen in the field. Chief Young demoted all ranking officers back to patrolmen with the exception of one assistant chief and one captain, both stationed in Albuquerque. Chief Young also incorporated the junior/senior patrolman status. Those patrolmen with less than five years of service were assigned junior patrolman status, and wore silver trim and buttons on their uniforms. Those patrolmen with five years or more of service were assigned senior patrolman status and wore gold trim and buttons on their uniforms. This system is still in use today.
On April 7, 1943, Chief Young changed the uniform
policy so officers could wear regulation slacks as a summer uniform from
May 1 to October 15. Boots
and breeches had to be worn when on motorcycles or when traveling. That same year, the State Highway Commission raised
the speed limit to 45 miles per hour because of the great distances
between towns. Patrolman Mackie C de Baca
joined the state police on April 16, 1937, and was stationed in Santa
Fe. In 1941, Officer C de
Baca was drafted into the US Army where he served as a lineman in
Germany. He had
participated in the D-Day invasion in France and had been awarded the
Bronze Star Medal for gallantry in action near Saint Barthelmy, France
in August of 1944. Private
First Class C de Baca was killed in action on December 21, 1944. When World War II ended the soldiers came home. By federal law, returning veterans were entitled to have their civilian jobs back. Several state policemen who returned got their jobs back and the state policemen who had been hired in their places were let go. An interesting story related to this policy was that of the Miles brothers. Lloyd Miles joined the state police in 1939 and was drafted into the Army in 1941. That same year, Lloyd’s brother, Floyd, joined the state police as a patrolman. Lloyd was released from the Army after the war and rejoined the state police in January of 1946. Floyd had to be terminated from the state police because the state had a nepotism law, that prohibited the brothers from working for the same department. Lloyd left the state police again on August 14th of that year. Floyd reapplied and was rehired in January 1947. Floyd went on to have the longest tenure of any New Mexico State Police Officer: 40 years. On November 22, 1945, Chief Young resigned his
position. It was vacant
until January 1946, when Homer Ledbetter was appointed Chief. Chief Ledbetter had been an athletic coach in Hobbs and
a colonel in the U.S. Army during World War II.
Chief Ledbetter served as Chief until he was killed in an
off-duty traffic accident on October 21, 1946. With the full support of Governor Dempsey, Chief
Young had obtained appropriations for two-way radios.
In 1946, the system went on the air with a radio repeater located
on Sandia Crest near Albuquerque. Radios
were installed in all 41 patrol cars.
Officers had to take a ten-question test to receive a permit from
the FCC for a Restricted Radio Telephone Operators Permit.
Officers that failed the test were not allowed to transmit on the
radio. On March 11, the radio station went on the air.
The early call letters were KCQA. On August 20, 1946, Patrolman Leslie Delbert Bugg was patrolling on US 66, on the outskirts of Tucumcari, when his motorcycle collided head-on with an automobile driven by a Texas resident. The automobile was on the wrong side of the road. Officer Bugg was taken to Tucumcari General Hospital with a broken pelvis, probable back injuries, and other internal injuries. Shortly after the accident, Chief Ledbetter set up a state police relay to transport a nurse from Santa Rosa to Tucumcari to attend Delbert through the night. At approximately 12:00 noon on August 21, 1946, Delbert died of internal injuries. Officer Bugg had joined the state police on January 26, 1946, after a tour in the U.S. Army during World War II. His duty station was Grants, until his transfer to Tucumcari. After the death of Chief Ledbetter, Sheriff Hubert
Beasley of Quay County was appointed chief of the state police.
A former railroad employee and rancher, his appointment took
effect December 1, 1946. In 1947, a district office in Albuquerque was constructed at the corner of Central and Louisiana. The Alamogordo District also gained a new office under Chief Beasley, along with another radio station.
Patrolman Bill Speight joined
the state police on November 20, 1937.
From 1937 to 1938 he was stationed in Estancia, Alamogordo,
Raton, Tucumcari, and again in Alamogordo.
In 1939, he was involved in a shooting while assisting the
Alamogordo Police Department. It
was a domestic dispute between a husband and wife.
Officer Speight was called because he knew the man involved.
While Officer Speight was talking to him, the man raised a
shotgun and they both fired. The
man was killed and Officer Speight was shot in the leg with about 20
pellets of birdshot. The
wound caused him problems for the rest of his life, including a
pronounced limp. Officer Speight left the department in 1943 to join
the Army. In 1945, when his
service was completed, he was rehired by the department and once again
stationed in Alamogordo. One
night in 1947, Officer Speight was assisting the U.S. Border Patrol in
the Carrizozo area with apprehending illegal aliens who had boarded a
train. As Officer Speight
chased one of them across the top of the railcars, his injured leg gave
out, causing him to fall from the train. The fall resulted in a broken neck and spinal injuries.
Even though he eventually recovered and returned to work, this
injury would cause him to suffer periodic blackouts. Officer Speight continued to suffer blackouts, and on one occasion while he was patrolling, he experienced a loss of consciousness, causing his patrol car to strike a concrete embankment. The blackout problems surfaced during the accident investigation. Since there was no sick leave or duty injury leave, Chief Beasley kept him on the payroll, but would not issue him another patrol car. Whatever duties Officer Speight performed from then on were done from his personal car. In those days, the department had maintained a 200-foot radio tower on Wolford Mountain, near Cloudcroft, New Mexico. FCC regulations required a rotating beacon on top of the tower for aircraft safety. Since there were no power lines to the tower, Holloman Air Force Base loaned the department an electric generator to power beacon. Officer Speight had the responsibility to travel to the mountain each evening and start the generator. He could only get his car part way up the mountain and would have to walk the remaining distance. On February 21, 1949, he was overdue returning from the generator. A search party located his vehicle at the base of Wolford Peak, and following the trail on February 24, searchers found Officer Speight’s body face down under a tree. Official reports state he died of exposure, possibly due to another blackout.
|
|
|
|
 |
