Born June 3, 1899 in Hoxie, Kansas, Chief Pickering loved baseball. He worked his way to the American League and, on April 18, 1931, he made his Major League debut with the Boston Red Sox. He played two seasons in the Major Leagues.
Hired as Motor Officer for the City of Modesto July 3, 1934, promoted to Sergeant August 1, 1937, promoted to Captain March 16, 1941 and, upon death of Chief Arington, appointed to Chief March 7, 1945.
Under Chief Pickering’s direction, the Department increased from its wartime number of 26, nine of whom served in the armed forces and fortunately all returned, to a department consisting of a Captain of the Department, four Sergeants, 16 Patrolmen, three Detectives, four Traffic Officers, one Secretary and one Clerk.
In his campaign to prevent crime in the thriving city of Modesto, Chief Pickering had put his staff on a 12-hour basis. This arrangement brought to the members extra pay for the added four hours. It also serves to hold open the places that would be filled by returning veterans who were police officers when they were inducted into our armed forces.
The Reserve Program also expanded and included 40 Reserve Officers with one Captain and one Sergeant. The Reserve Unit has been an integral part of the Police Department ever since, an asset the Department really cannot put a value on. It was a major asset during the war years when staffing was critical.
The informally organized Police Reserve Unit came into existence in the latter half of 1941. The original Unit was organized by retired Modesto hardware store owner Albert Pederson. It consisted entirely of members of the local chapter of the American Legion.
This unit was organized to address two immediate civic concerns: the lack of adequate police protection at local football games and consensus within the community that the Nation was rapidly approaching war and needed to establish a Civil Defense Unit.
The American Legion Police Reserve Unit met these needs but, due to the failure of the City Council to enact the necessary legislation, it never became a lawfully constituted Police Unit in spite of its years of service.
The oldest paper document on file relating to the Police Reserve Unit was authored by Albert L. Pederson. Mr. Pederson was the first Reserve Captain of the Unit. Beginning in 1941, the Unit went under the name of “Legion Auxiliary Police”.
Within the minutes of a Modesto City Council meeting dated March 7, 1956, City Attorney Allan Grimes expressed concern over the City’s Police Reserve Program. He indicated that it had no legal basis for existing. A search of past records had been made, and no indication could be found that the City Council had ever taken any formal action to establish such a program.
The City Attorney then submitted to the Council an ordinance designed to properly address and correct the omission. The proposed ordinance was successfully adopted (ORD. 76-C.S.) and the Modesto Police Reserve Unit was formally established on April 5, 1956.
The only other Reserve Police Officer to reach the rank of Captain was Mel Thomas. Mel was sworn in as a Reserve Police Officer on February 3, 1973. During his dedicated 30 years with the Modesto Police Department, Mel was trusted with assignments and details unheard of in the ranks of reserve officers.
Mel participated in regular patrol duties, became the first reserve officer to be assigned to the traffic division’s motor unit, transported prisoners long distances in his personally owned Cessna 182, and acted as the Department’s Chaplain where he not only married many colleagues, but also buried them.
Chief Pickering retired August 20, 1952 and then, as if to get his second wind, joined Sheriff Dan Kelsay’s staff as Head Jailer and remained in that position until he retired in September 1964. Chief Pickering died May 13, 1970 in Modesto, Stanislaus County and is at rest at Lakewood Memorial Park.
Born August 29, 1916 in San Francisco, California he moved to Palo Alto as a young boy, graduating from Palo Alto High School and attended and graduated from UC Berkeley. Chief Neel began his career as a Special Agent with the FBI from 1941-1951. He acted as Chief of Police of Napa, Ca. from 1951-1952, when he was recruited to take over as Police Chief of Modesto in 1952.
The Department continued to grow under Chief Neel’s command to 43 Officers and eight civilian employees. Modesto grew too, with approximately 27,000 citizens. Modesto was also chosen as an All American City in March 1955.
The department headquarters was showing its age and consideration of a newer building was started as the current building was literally sinking and the exterior doors had to be shaved in order for them to open. The planning and purchase of property for a new police facility was started and took several years to complete.
The department started specializing in certain areas such as burglary and crime scene investigation. There were four detectives assigned to investigate certain felony cases and most officers did complete investigations - from taking the original report to all follow-up and case disposition.
Chief Neel retired in 1957, moved to Palo Alto and became the Director of Security for Pacific Gas and Electric Company in San Francisco until his retirement in 1981. He returned to Modesto and died in his home May 28, 2008.
Born December 20, 1912 in Berkeley, Alameda County George Bowers entered law enforcement at an early age. In 1925 he was sworn in as sergeant of the first junior patrol to be established at Columbus School in Berkeley. He continued his education at Berkeley High and later attended University of California.
Chief Bowers was appointed Chief on October 14, 1957 and brought us into the turbulent ‘60’s. During his tenure, the Department dealt with traffic and cruising problems, a complete change in uniform and a new police facility.
The police headquarters at 614 10th Street had been built in 1921 and was condemned in 1961 due to "sinkage" caused in 1928 when someone decided to connect the city wells via a 4- by 4- foot concrete casing 40 feet long running under the building, apparently without compacting the earth above it. The structure literally began to sink in the middle, where it was weighted down by a 50-ton safe.
By the time it was abandoned, four inches had been removed from the bottom of the exterior doors just so they would open. The new police building at 601 11th Street was then built.
The construction of the new police facility from ground breaking to dedication was one year, one month. During the move from the old headquarters to the new, a lot of documents and photographs were thrown out by the tidy people. A lot of our history went out with those things and the work continues to try to rebuild what was lost.
The Department grew to 72 personnel, we changed the uniform from khaki to dark blue, and we moved into a new headquarters building with our own dispatch center. Modesto had three high schools and a population of 40,000. The population was about to dramatically explode.
Chief Bowers retired July 1, 1966. He died at Reno, Nevada on August 15, 1986.
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