|
The Hollywood Police Department (HPD) is a full-service agency servicing a population of 145,629 in of the municipality of Hollywood, Florida. ==History== The city of Hollywood has a long tradition of ineffectual policing. The police department was established on 8 December 1925, along with the town itself. The department had seven chiefs in its first year of existence as the city council appointed inexperienced locals with little interest in the work. On 17 September 1926, a massive hurricane destroyed most of the town. The local National Guard unit protected the city as the department was devastated. Captain Clare Stout headed this operation and became chief of the department less than three years later. The Great Depression hit the town hard. By 1931, policemen were forced to drive their own cars on patrol and pay in part for their uniforms. The next year, the city was unable to meet payroll and issued letters of credit in lieu of salaries. The number of police officers on the force varied wildly during this period. The department was understaffed, underpaid and led by chiefs who lacked professional training. During this period, the city became a base for organized crime. Despite the legal prohibition of alcohol, many illegal bars and casinos operated undisturbed by the police. “Lucky” Luciano and Meyer Lansky ran their operations from Hollywood. These activities continued into the postwar era, despite periodic attempts by the state to suppress them. Between 1947 and 1951, United States Senator Estes Kefauver and the ''Miami Herald'' highlighted local corruption and vice. This led to increased pressure that drove the biggest operations to Las Vegas and nearby Cuba. In September 1980 an unknown number of police officers called in sick as a work action. The department’s own website reports that in the 1980s many officers were more concerned with their side jobs as security guards than with their work with the department. In January 1986, Richard Witt became chief of police. He had served 26 years with the Miami Police Department. He was the first chief of police with professional experience and few connections to the moneyed interests in the city.〔Official website, retrieved 4 August 2013〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hollywood Police Department (Florida)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|