Vollmer, August, 1876-1955

August Vollmer was the Chief of Police in Berkeley, Calif. from 1905-1932. He wrote and taught at the University of California, Berkeley about police science. Vollmer is considered by many to be the father of modern American police methods.

From the description of August Vollmer letters : Berkeley, Calif., to Jane Hentze, [Alaska] : TLS, 1950-1955. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 56712945

Biographical Sketch

August Vollmer was born March 7, 1876 of German parents in New Orleans, and, when he was fifteen, the family moved to Berkeley, California. At the age of eighteen he opened a coal and feed store and was active in the formation of the Berkeley volunteer fire department. When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, he enlisted as a private and saw service both in Cuba and in the Philippines. Returning to civilian life in Berkeley, he worked as a letter carrier and fireman. In 1905 he was elected town marshal and subsequently organized his town patrol into the Berkeley Police Department.

In the years that followed he inaugurated a number of innovations that made his department the model of a scientific police force which attracted national and international recognition. He introduced a police training program, a radio communication system, a mobile patrol, a police records system, the use of the English modus operandi system, beat analysis, a scientific crime laboratory, development of the fingerprint system of identification, and use of the lie detector. He established police service on a career basis and introduced psychological and intelligence resting into the recruitment process. In 1919 he began actively recruiting students from the University of California, the so-called "college cops, " many of whom went on to positions of importance in police departments and penal institutions throughout the country.

Vollmer himself taught police administration courses at the University of California summer sessions, and, taking leave of absence from the Berkeley Police Department 1929-1931, taught at the University of Chicago. After his retirement from the Berkeley force in 1931, he was appointed professor of police administration in the Political Science Department at the University of California, retiring in 1937.

His national reputation was such that police departments and municipal officials often requested his services as a consultant, and throughout his career he conducted a number of surveys and helped reorganize police departments in some sixty American and foreign cities. A prolific contributor to scientific journals in the field of criminology and social science, he became the leading spokesman for the concept of a professional police force. His several books - The Criminal, Police and Modern Society, Crime and the State Police (written in collaboration with Alfred Parker) and Crime, Crooks and Cops (again with Parker as collaborator) became standard works in the field.

Ill health plagued his later years, and Vollmer ended his life on November 4, 1955.

From the guide to the August Vollmer Papers, [ca. 1918-1955], (The Bancroft Library)