First Term
James E. Davis made a name for himself in the department as the head of the vice squad during Prohibition. When Chief Davis created a "gun squad" staffed with 50 policemen, he made a public pronouncement that "the gun-toting element and the rum smugglers are going to learn that murder and gun-toting are most inimical to their best interest." David declared that the L.A.P.D. "would "hold court on gunmen in the Los Angeles streets; I want them brought in dead, not alive and will reprimand any officer who shows the least mercy to a criminal." For his efforts, he won the moniker "Two-Gun Davis."
The primary "targets" of Davis' department were purveyors of vice, radicals, and vagrants.
Davis was a proponent of the use of radio in police work. In 1929, he ordered his staff to investigate the use of radio for dispatching officers. However, it was up to his successor, Roy E. Steckel, to put the radio in LA.P.D. vehicles.
Read more about this topic: James E. Davis (police)
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