Police Department Archive of Akron Ohio, Police Fraternal Order Memberships, Police Rules, Regulations and By Laws; 1924-1938

Police Department Rules and Regulations

Book

Akron police pocket manuals from c. 1924, documenting how officers in a major industrial city were governed by departmental rules while developing their own institutions for benefits, fraternity, and ultimately labor representation. The group centers on four closely related Akron institutions: the Police Department, Police Relief Fund, Police Benevolent Association, and Akron Lodge No. 7 of the Fraternal Order of Police. The Police Benevolent Association rule book provides for membership of department personnel and a benefit fund, while the FOP constitution records membership in an organization founded nationally in 1915 to organize policemen around working conditions and grievances and whose Akron lodge later became the collective bargaining representative for city officers.

Five pocket booklets, approximately 4 x 6 inches each, Akron, Ohio, 1924 to twentieth century.
[1] "General Rules and Regulations for the Government of the Police Department of the City of Akron." Akron, 1924. Adopted July 1, 1924, the manual was issued as city property and required officers to carry and know its contents. Beyond regulations for conduct and discipline, it supplies a working criminal law catechism defining offenses including riot, robbery, arson, adultery, fornication, and abortion, and fixes grand larceny at $35. Departmental rules address officers' use of liquor, cards and billiards, entry into premises suspected of selling intoxicating liquor, indebtedness, disclosure of department affairs, loss of a shield, failure to discover crimes committed on an officer's post, and the instruction that "Roughness shall not be tolerated."
[2] "Rules and By Laws of the Board of Trustees of the Police Relief Fund." Akron, July 1937. Rules governing the city's institutional benefit structure for police officers; Howard E. Turner appears as Secretary of its Board of Trustees.
[3] "Rules and Regulations of the Police Benevolent Association." Akron, revised through January 3, 1938, with officers and membership roster for 1939. Defining itself as a "Social, Benevolent and Fraternal Society of Policemen," the association provides for enrollment of department members, a five dollar admission fee taken from the first paycheck, and a benefit fund. Its approximately 225 name roster records the department's personnel, including Howard E. Turner as Vice President and likely Paul Emmons, marked "Retired," permitting the personnel represented here to be traced across the related organizations.
[4] "Constitution and By Laws, Akron Lodge No. 7, Fraternal Order of Police." Akron, c. 1929. Constitution of the local FOP lodge with membership certificate with ownership inscription by Paul Emmons. The copy documents individual participation in the fraternal structure of an organization created nationally around police working conditions and grievances and later exercising formal collective bargaining rights in Akron.
[5] Akron Police Department. "Standardized Field Sobriety Testing." Akron, undated, likely 2000s. Pocket field manual for qualifying someone's intoxication level.

The 1924 regulations were issued as Akron's rubber industry had transformed the city's population and municipal institutions, while Prohibition made liquor, vice, officer conduct, and enforcement recurring questions of local government. Akron and Summit County were also centers of Ku Klux Klan political strength during the early 1920s, placing the manual's rules concerning liquor, public order, riots, and officer conduct within a particularly contested municipal environment; nothing in the material establishes Klan affiliation for the officers or officials named. More directly documented across the group is the development of police self organization: departmental employees participated in a benevolent association and municipal relief structure in the 1930s, while Akron Lodge No. 7 belonged to the FOP tradition that began as fraternal organization around police working conditions and later acquired formal collective bargaining authority. The repeated names across the Relief Fund, Benevolent Association, and FOP material preserve these structures at the level of individual officers rather than administrative abstraction. Light to moderate rubbing and toning. Loose pages in the "Fraternal Order" booklet but remains complete; Overall good condition.

Item #23781

Price: $450.00