A discovery by city Municipal Court staff has provided a glimpse into life on the beat 60 years ago for Sweet Home police.
Sweet Home Municipal Court staff recently found three bound copies of what are labeled “Police Docket,” with records going back to 1949. The documents cover the period of 1949 through 1977, listing entries on a single line, including date, charge, a name, the citing officer, fines and disposition. It’s not clear whether the documents were created by the court or the Police Department as it tracked the disposition of cases, but it is labeled with the word “police.”
“I’m positive they weren’t in the basement when we moved out,” Police Chief Bob Burford said. The department moved out of the City Hall basement following the February flooding in 1996. The department still used the basement for records until it moved to a new building in 2000.
At some point, the documents were moved to the basement, which is still used to store some records, Burford said, and that’s where court personnel found them and turned them over to the Police Department.
What can be found in the document is similar in many ways and different in many others to the computerized daily police log generated by the department.
By the 1970s, many of the names may be familiar in the Sweet Home community. Some of those names continue to be among those appearing frequently in The New Era’s public safety log, which relies on the department’s daily log.
Fines from 1949 through the 1960s were relatively low compared to today’s standards, generally between $5 and $15. Early on, the fines could reach as high as $25. In the 1960s and later, $25 fines were more common.
A common charge in 1949 and for some years after was “drunk.” For that, offenders typically paid $10.
A reckless driving charge drew a fine of $25, while a defective lighting and violation of the basic rule (essentially speeding) drew $5 fines, although VBR could generate up to $25 in fines. No license could bring a fine of $5 or $10.
The fine for disorderly conduct was $10 while “drunk driving” for one person netted a $60 fine with 20 days served. But a “driving while intoxicated” charge brought a $125 fine.
By the mid-1950s, fines for “drunk on public street” and disorderly conduct were $10 and $20 respectively while “driving while drunk” was netting fines of $150 to $200 plus jail sentences.
An “overtime parking” ticket brought a fine of $7 in 1956, while “drunk in a public place” brought a $15 fine and driving without a license cost an offender $5.
A charge for a child running away was labeled “AWOL,” or absent without leave. A minor in possession of alcohol charge netted a fine of $25, and vagrancy brought a $10 penalty.
Today, reckless driving is a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail with a maximum fine of $6,250.
Fines for speeding range from $145 to $427. Driving without a license will cost an offender $242 and up.
Driving under the influence is punishable by up to one year in jail and a maximum fine of $6,250 while minor in possession of alcohol usually costs an offender $300, but can be higher if the offender has multiple convictions.
Some of the charges listed in the old dockets, such as “public drunkenness,” are worded differently today or are no longer crimes.
In the 1950s and 1960s, women’s personal names were not necessarily listed, as in the case of Mrs. Doyle Shipp on a traffic ticket in 1957.
In 1966, “minor in possession of beer” ended with a sentence of “10 days served.” The penalty for no license was “one day served;” and dog at large brought a fine of $5.
“We’re going to keep them,” Burford said of the records. “Due to space limitations, we had to destroy old police reports for these time periods, but these are a quick overview and have some historical value.”
Burford hasn’t decided whether or even how to display the documents, he said. If displayed, they will need to be under some kind of glass cover.