December 2018
Post 13 Trivia Hey Officer…Do You Remember? John Young, Patrolman
DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN…
Foot cops didn’t see the inside of a sector car except when they were picked up to relieve the recorder to guard a DOA?
Detectives at a ripe DOA, smoked cigars, put Vick’s-Vapo-Rub under their noses, or burned coffee grounds on the stove?
Attaching body identification tag (UF-95) on the big toe of your first DOA?
A cop was called a patrolman – and they were all men? Cops wore long winter overcoats – all 15 pounds (the horse blanket), chokers & brass buttons for blue shirts, black rubber rain coats, cap protectors & leggings (with garters that no one ever wore)?
Policewomen with .32 caliber service revolvers?
Getting a scratch on the last hour of your tour because you didn’t properly salute the sergeant on the previous tour?
Learning to spin your nightstick without breaking your kneecap or the store window? Batons were made of real wood, usually coco-bobo? Slappers, nippers or orange safety belts? Green parking summonses for double parking and fire hydrants?
You needed six years on the job before you could take the sergeant’s exam?
Delehanty Institute flyer (1960) announcing a new PATROLMAN exam with salary @ $6,706 a year, $129 a week after three years, and starting salary was $100 a week? Salary was based on 42-hour week and included $125 annual uniform allowance.
Foot post without portable radio? School crossings & bank posts on day tours?
Call boxes? Making rings from boxes on opposite ends of your foot posts where a post had more than one box? Making rings using Ma Bell pay phones with pin number NYPD?
Saturday day tours – washing and waxing the RMP before inspection?
Maintaining your assigned sector car – NEVER putting it out of service? Black, green & white sector cars? Milk crates holding up the backrest of seats to keep them from collapsing? Emergency RMP repairs at local garage or gas station?
Popping the RMP hood (during summer months) to let heat from engine escape to make inside temperature bearable?
RMP seats made of gray alligator vinyl that never wore out but had burned craters from hand held spotlights? Bubblegum machine roof lights and standard transmission in radio cars? Sirens freezing (in winter months) after a free car wash? Getting permission to take your meal in another sector and leaving miles on the sheet for the next tour? Gas book and gas pump “protective counter” never had the same numbers?
Your first time in a radio car and the old guy saying, “Sit down, don’t do anything, or say anything & don’t touch the radio without me telling you to.”
Getting a flute (whiskey) or pail of suds (beer) for the lieutenant on the late tour?
Desk lieutenants were godlike & precinct captains were only whispered about?
The sergeant told you do an 18, and you asking, “What’s an 18?” (For you rookies, a OF-18 is an Accident Report – City Involved.) Uniform Form numbers 10, 28, 49 57 & 61? What’s a OF-33? That was a OF-28 plus a 5 dollar bill for the roll-call officer to get the day off.
How about, “Hey kid, to you it’s a homicide, to me (detective) it’s an aided case.” Or, “He’d take a hot stove and come back for the ashes.”
Target of the month – K.G. board covered with green shade in sitting room? Rap sheet or yellow sheet & Miranda warning insert carried in the hat pocket? Day off for good arrests (PG 26/ 10)? Gambling arrests got 3 days in 48 Pct.
Embarrassing moments – range officer blowing lint out of your service revolver during inspection, or after a midnight tour arriving home with RMP keys in your pocket & having to bring them back to the station house?
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!