Sacramento Police Department
| Sacramento Police Department | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | SPD |
Patch of the SPD
|
|
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1849 |
| Employees | 1,239 |
| Annual budget | $130 million (2010) |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | City of Sacramento in the state of California, United States |
| Size | 99.4 sq mi (257 km2) |
| Population | 486,200 |
| Legal jurisdiction | City of Sacramento, CA |
| Governing body | Sacramento City Council |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | 5770 Freeport Blvd Sacramento, CA |
| Officers | 799 |
| Unsworn members | 440 |
| Agency executive | Samuel D. Somers Jr., Chief |
| Districts | 6 |
| Facilities | |
| Beats | 18 |
| Helicopters | 3 |
| Airplanes | 1 |
| K9s | 11 |
| Website | |
| http://www.sacpd.org/ | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. See the reference below for the source of the above data. | |
The Sacramento Police Department (SPD) is the police department for the city of Sacramento, California. The department was created in 1849. The current Chief of Police is Samuel D. Somers Jr.
The founding of the City of Sacramento was a turbulent one - a beginning when life was cheap, the stakes were high and a large percentage of the population acted with the philosophy "it was every man for himself."
By 1849, Sacramento had grown rapidly from a small settlement at Sutter's Fort to a town of 10,000 people. The discovery of gold had brought people from all walks of life together. Sacramento had all the problems of a Wild West town. There were murders, robberies, shootings, and various other crimes committed in the city. In the summer of 1849, the city experienced its first lynching when a gambler named Roe was convicted by a citizens' committee and hanged for murder. On August 1, 1849, the City of Sacramento was founded when the first meeting of a Common Council was held. At that time, the City boundaries were north to the American river, east to 31st Street, south to Y Street and west to the Sacramento River, encompassing 4.5 square miles. N. C. Cunningham was appointed as the first City Marshall (the position now known as Chief of Police) and was given two deputies to enforce the law.
The city did not have a building for a police station or jail, so in May 1850, the ship, LaGrange, was moored at the foot of H Street on the river and officially became the police station and jail boat.
As a result of the Gold Rush in 1852, Sacramento had grown in size until the population had reached 150,000 persons. The Police Department was also increased to six men. In addition to normal police duties, these six officers had to deal with the first Chinese Tong War to ever occur outside of China. Also, the most ambitious murder plot ever recorded in the West occurred during this period. Three men, one of them the Public Administrator, plotted to kill 55 leading wealthy Sacramentans for their money. Fortunately, the Police Department identified the murderers and arrested two of them after the first killing. Both men were subsequently convicted and hanged for their crime.
The Police Department grew slowly from 1849 to 1913 when it had 36 officers. The men of the Department patrolled the city on foot and on bicycles. The Department had two bicycles at that time. A typical bicycle beat covered about one half of the entire city, or about 200 square blocks. In those years, the Department did not have radio equipment. Communication between the Police Station and the beat officers was accomplished by telephones located in specially designated "call boxes" distributed throughout the city for this purpose.
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Wikipedia