The police: constables, marshals, and the uniformed department

1831–2026 · THE INSTITUTION

The line's beginning: The chiefs' succession — the marshals and the chiefs of police, name by name — is carried in the Public Servants section of this history and is pointed to, not retold; this entry keeps the institution itself. The department's own published history begins its line with constables appointed in 1831, the year the town was platted as county seat, and dates the name South Bend Police Department to 1903. Between the constables and the department stood the marshals: Daniel Roof, the first marshal of the municipality, named in Anderson and Cooley's 1901 South Bend and the Men Who Have Made It and carried in Public Servants; the city's first directory, of 1867, lists Jacob Hustor as marshal; Farr's directory of 1883 lists George Bernhard as marshal, under Mayor Levi J. Ham. The marshal was an elected town and city officer; the chief of police, when the office came, was an appointed professional, and the institution's modern history runs from him.

The first uniforms: The department's defining early act is documented in a biography. Joseph Turnock — sheriff of St. Joseph County 1872 to 1876 and four years a deputy, then chief of the fire department for a year in the Nicar succession, then chief of police — "first uniformed the policemen," Howard's biographical volume records, "and also brought them to a commendable state of discipline and efficiency." The biography does not date that first tenure; it dates his return: in 1901 he was again placed at the head of the department, and continued for two years. The uniformed, disciplined force of the twentieth century begins, on this record, with Turnock. The Gamewell police alarm — the patrol call box — was among the city's advertised systems by 1907, the policeman's counterpart to the fire alarm box. The department's headquarters of that era were the city's: the 1902 city hall housed, in Howard's words, all the city officers and boards including the police department, with the city court and, as the Government section records, the jail in its basement.

The modern department takes shape: Two federal and municipal documents mark the institution's later course at the size the record gives them. In 1968–69 the department ran a Community Relations Bureau whose final report to the federal Office of Justice Programs survives: its projects were a Crime Alert program of red telephones at headquarters, answered immediately; a Police Community Relations Mobile Office, a headquarters that could be set up in an area of possible disorder; a Community Radio Watch of citizens with two-way radios in their vehicles; and a Rumor Control program, a twenty-four-hour telephone line for citizens' inquiries about rumors. A generation later the institution's strength and shape are stated in the city's own bond documents: an official statement of November 1991 gives the South Bend Police Department as 230 officers and 105 vehicles, with K-9 patrols, a SWAT team, a metro drug task force, and bicycle and motorcycle patrols.

The department's internal architecture at the century's end is named in the council's resolution of 18 December 1995 honoring Chief Ronald G. Marciniak: three divisions under division chiefs Larry E. Wolvos (Services) and Donald A. Ruszkowski (Investigative), and, built or enlarged under Marciniak, the Services Division, the Detective Bureau, the Arson Bureau, an enlarged Juvenile Aid Bureau, the Neighborhood Enforcement Service Team (N.E.S.T.), Metro S.O.S., the Records Division, the Training Bureau, the Traffic Bureau, Safetyville, and Crime Prevention/Neighborhood Watch, together with the department's first labor-management working agreement. When the detective bureau was first created is not in the record reached; by 2014 it worked three shifts, day, afternoon and midnight, as a federal court's account of the department records. The department's motor-age firsts — its first patrol car, its first motorcycle, its first radio — are likewise not in the record reached, and are named here as gaps rather than filled.

The institution's scandal years, above all the police-tapes affair that removed Chief Darryl Boykins in 2012, are carried institutionally in the City Controversies section and in Public Servants; they are pointed to, not retold. Headquarters today is the public safety building at 701 West Sample Street, where the Board of Public Safety — the board that governs both departments — holds its meetings in the department's auditorium.

The department's dead: The police roll of the line-of-duty dead is kept by the city itself, in two Common Council resolutions, and is printed from them. On 23 April 2001, Resolution No. 2987-01 honored thirteen officers killed in the line of duty and declared the week of May 7, 2001 Law Enforcement Memorial Week, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #36 conducting the annual tribute. On 9 May 2011, Resolution No. 4098-11 honored fifteen. The fifteen, as the 2011 resolution names them: Hans Brandt; Fred E. Buland; Oscar Christenson; Samuel Cooper; Thomas J. DeRue, Sr.; Charles E. Farkas, Sr.; Lewis Keller; Neil McIntyre; Nick S. Polizzotto; Scott Lee Severns; Ronald St. Germain, Sr.; Delbert Thompson; Lloyd Thompson; Howard Wagner; Paul R. Deguch. The memorial record dates some of them: Officer Oscar W. Christensen — the council's resolutions spell the name Christenson — was accidentally shot by a railroad detective along the Lake Shore tracks on 11 May 1897, investigating vandalism in the yards; Patrolman Samuel Cooper died 1 November 1900 of a gunshot wound suffered a week earlier arresting an armed robbery suspect; Patrolman Charles E. Farkas, Sr. was killed on 27 May 1933 by the fleeing suspect who had just killed Patrolman Delbert Thompson as Thompson investigated a stolen vehicle; Patrolman Howard C. Wagner was killed 30 June 1934 in the Dillinger gang's robbery of the Merchants National Bank, told in the Bank Robberies section; Corporal Paul Richard Deguch was shot questioning a suspect on 24 August 1997; Corporal Scott Lee Severns died 23 April 2006 of wounds suffered two days earlier, off duty, stepping in front of a friend during a robbery; Corporal Nick Samuel Polizzotto was shot on 24 April 2007 investigating a report of shots fired on Lincoln Way East. No officer has been added to the roll in the record reached since Polizzotto.

Sources:

1. South Bend Police Department, department history as published on the department's website (constables appointed 1831; the name South Bend Police Department from 1903), as cited in reference accounts of the department.
2. Anderson & Cooley, South Bend and the Men Who Have Made It (1901) — Daniel Roof, first marshal; carried at length in the Public Servants section of this history.
3. Grace Osterhus, "City Directories Tell the Story of South Bend," Indiana Magazine of History — the 1867 directory's officers, Jacob Hustor, marshal. W. L. Farr, South Bend City Directory (1883) — George Bernhard, marshal, read first-hand.
4. Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1907), vol. 2 — the Joseph Turnock biography: sheriff, fire chief, chief of police, the first uniforming of the policemen, and the 1901 return; vol. 1 — the 1902 city hall housing the police department, and the 1907 leaflet's Gamewell police alarm.
5. South Bend Police Department, Community Relations Bureau, 1968–1969 — Final Report, via the Office of Justice Programs — Crime Alert, the mobile office, Community Radio Watch, Rumor Control.
6. City of South Bend Redevelopment Authority, official statement (November 1991), "Police and Fire Protection" — 230 officers, 105 vehicles, K-9, SWAT, metro drug task force, bicycle and motorcycle patrols.
7. City of South Bend, Common Council Resolution No. 2312-95 (18 December 1995) — the Marciniak commendation: the three divisions and the bureaus and units of his tenure.
8. City of South Bend, Common Council minutes, 23 April 2001 (Resolution No. 2987-01) and 9 May 2011 (Resolution No. 4098-11) — the rolls of thirteen and fifteen officers killed in the line of duty.
9. Officer Down Memorial Page — the dated entries for Christensen (1897), Cooper (1900), Farkas (1933), Deguch (1997), Severns (2006) and Polizzotto (2007); Wagner (1934) as carried in this history's Bank Robberies section.