What does it take?

What does it take to be a police officer in Louisville? Well, in 1894, a bill was passed in Frankfort called the Metropolitan Police Bill. It whirled through the General Assembly with no opposition and was, in due course, signed by the Governor. The new law required that no man convicted of a felony could be a policeman and that applicants must show a good moral character. In addition, if an applicant has ever been engaged in any unlawful business, they would be ineligible for hiring. Policemen (and they were all men) could not be members of political clubs and promotions would be made as follows: sergeants from the ranks, lieutenants from sergeants and captains from lieutenants. Promotions would only be made for “special capacity,” and none were to be done for political reasons.

In addition, all members of the force would have to undergo an examination, once a year, on their knowledge of city ordinances and the laws of Kentucky. A manual would be furnished to each member. If after six months, the officer could not pass the examination, they would be dismissed. The law emphasized that a knowledge of English, both in reading and writing, was required.

Over time, these qualifications changed but some of these requirements still linger on. For example, in KRS 95.762, all members of a police and fire department still have to be able to read and write in English, and must be a “person of sobriety and integrity, and has been and is an orderly, law-abiding citizen.” They many not be appointed on account of “political sentiments or affiliations,” or as a reward for their political activities, services or contributions. For many years, deputy sheriffs had to live in the county they served, but now Sheriffs have the option to allow them to live elsewhere. All non-elected peace officers must, of course, by U.S. citizens and be at least 21 years of age.

On interesting issue surrounds whether a deputy sheriff has participated in any way in any labor dispute unless they have lived in the county for more than two years, and if he/she does, they must immediately forfeit their position. This sounds odd, since it is specifically only deputy sheriffs who face this prohibition, until you remember that back during the coal wars of the 1930s, in eastern Kentucky, many deputy sheriffs were employed by the mines to protect the mine property, and battled the miners who were fighting against the mine owners. However, another provision also prohibits any peace officer from having worked as a private officer or guard , as an active participant in any labor dispute.

Now, most non-elected peace officers must meet a number of legal requirements, from background checks and polygraphs, to physical fitness testing and of course, a number of weeks of training from an academy authorized by the state.

But what about in Louisville? As early as 1919, the Louisville Police had established their own training school for new officers, under the direction of George T. Ragsdale.

In 1907, Professor Ragsdale came to Louisville, having been born in Trafalgar, Indiana. He was educated at Franklin College, in Indiana, and also attended the University of CHicago and the University of Louisville. He worked for a year for the City Attorney, and led a school at the jail from 1913 to 1917. He started in the public school system with the Manual Training High School, went on to the Male High School in 1915, where he stayed until his death.

Professor Ragsdale, as he was generally known, had long been active in what we would now call vocational training for young men. In that year, Chief Ludlow Petty attended the annual convention of the Internaional Police Chiefs, in New Orleans, where he had discussed how his department was at the forefront in providing such training. He also attended lectures in which it was suggested that sociology and psychology would become more important in the suppression of crime. The convention focused on how police departments would be required to spend much more time on preventive and corrective measures. As early as 1921, Professor Ragsdale was encouraging formalized training for police teachers, in fact!

Over his first few years in the position, Professor Ragsdale would travel to study the police departments in New York and Washington, D.C. and even to Europe. In 1922, he spent eight weeks touring England, Ireland, Frank, German, Switzerland and Holland, and returned with a “trunk loaded” with materials. He noted that the profession of policeman in European countries were “equal in dignity to that of law or medicine or teaching.,” and personal efficiency is valued. He also returned with a desire to establish an identification system for criminals as was being used in Europe.

In October of that year, forty prospective policemen were assembled in the City Council Chambers, in City Hall, to take a test of their intelligence., what we would now recognize as a standardized IQ test. After than, Colonel Forrest Braden, Chief, and Professor George T. Ragsdale, quizzed the men in their knowledge of civil government , They were also asked to identify where certain well-known buildings were located and to provide the route for how to get to locations. In addition, Col. Braden published the list of the men under consideration, in the hopes that anyone who had any information about the men would come forward. The long list of the men’s names, and their addresses, followed the article.

Only if the men passed the first test would they be admitted to the Police School, where for eight hours a day, for several weeks, they would undergo training.

In 1927, half of the Louisville Police Department, some 200 men, were evaluated for their efficiency and found wanting, being given the lowest grade, a C.

In 1922, he strongly supported the creation of a bi-partisan civil service board for botht he police and fire departments. During much of his career with the Louisville Police Department, Ragsdale also maintained his relationships with the Louisville Male High school, continuing to work as an instructor there until his death. All of the new men were included, presumably for lack of time in service, Others so evaluated were those that had showed “signs of laxity of duty and inefficiency. Their names were to be shared with Board of Public Safety, to be used to encourage better performance and further bad reports, would subject them to a hearing.

As he worked to improve training, He also published an article entitled The Police Training School in the prestigious Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, in November 1929. In it, he outlined the current courses taught to novice patrolmen. which went for six weeks, seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with two hours of homework a day. Of interesting note, the men were required to take careful and detailed notes, rewrite them every night in presumably a clear hand, and those notes would be bound into a manual for them to use throughout their career, presumable in lieu of a textbook. The courses a school for policewomen (Louisville having hired its first two women in 1922), a continuation school for patrolmen and a division for advanced study for officers who sought promotion. In a link that continues today, after recruit school, officers were required to do an hour of training a week, for forty weeks a year, for … the same forty hours a week officers much complete annually to this day. In the next few years, much larger cities, including Chicago, were patterning their own police training after that from Louisville.

At the same time he served as the Director of the Police Training School, Ragsdale was also the head of the history department for the Louisville Male High School. In 1933, an article harkened back to 1914, when Professor Ragsdale helped the Jailer form a school at the jail, in which many boys and girls, and men and women, learned to read and write, and several went on to continue that work themselves.

And Professor Ragsdale did not sit at his desk all day. In 1933, he led 32 new patrolmen in a evening long campaign against vice in downtown, attired in civilian clothes. in 1934, he spearheaded a crackdown on traffic offenders. Many of the philosophies considered new and cutting -edge today, were his philosophy 90 years ago, including the need for social service agencies to work with the police to address juvenile delinquency, to give young people interesting and constructive activities to keep them from the wrong path, and even punishments should be constructive, not destructive.

In 1936, Professor George Ragsdale reported to the Mayor that from a small class two years before, there had developed a “small university” for police at the University of Louisville. More than 200 members of the department were eligible to take coursework, and they had to be admitted just like any other student. Their tuition, however, was a quarter of the fee, with the Department of Safety paying half and the university forgiving the rest. In the report, he indicated that such “in service training” is a duty and that more officers wanted such training than could be accommodated at the time.

On February 7, 1937, in the midst of the Great Flood that inundated Louisville (and many other areas), George Tilden Ragsdale, age 60, collapsed in the office of the Director of Safety, Dunlap Wakefield, in City Hall. Dr. Samuel J. Brownstein, the Assistant City Director of Health rushed to the office, but found he had already passed away. HIs death was attributed to a cerebral hemorrhage, brought on, according to Coroner Dr. John M. Keaney, by overwork. He had worked almost continuously for two weeks, advising Director Wakefield on personnel matters and encouraging that other take time to rest. He did not, however, do so. Moments before his attack, he told Miss Sarah Duffy, the office stenographer that he didn’t feel well and went to an office to rest on a cot. She heard him gasping for breath and called for help. Mayor Neville Miller gave him accolades, saying that his loss was to the entire city.

George Tilden Ragsdale is buried in Fairview Cemetery, in DeKalb, Illinois. He was survived by two sons, George Tilden, Jr. and Kenneth. His wife, Louise, sometimes called Sarah Louise, predeceased him in 1932, and is buried with him.

As was stated in an article in 1932, in the Courier-Journal, “It takes brains and not a little training of the right sort to become a good policeman.”