August Vollmer

August Vollmer (March 7, 1876 – November 4, 1955) was the first police chief of Berkeley, California, and a leading figure in the development of the field of criminal justice in the United States in the early 20th century. He has been described as "the father of modern policing". Vollmer played an influential role in introducing early 20th-century police reforms, which increasingly militarized police departments in the United States. A veteran of the Spanish–American War in the Philippines and the Philippine–American War, Vollmer introduced reforms that reflected his experiences in the U.S. military.

Early life

Vollmer was born in New Orleans to German immigrant parents, John and Philopine (Klundt) Vollmer. His father saw to it that he learned to box and swim, both of which he excelled at. Upon his father's death, his mother returned to Germany with her children for two years, after which she returned to New Orleans in 1886, but soon thereafter decided to move her family to San Francisco. In July 1890, the Vollmer family moved across the bay to Berkeley.

Before he was 20, August helped organize the North Berkeley Volunteer Fire Department, and in 1897, was awarded the Berkeley Fireman medal. He supported his mother and the rest of his family as a partner in Patterson and Vollmer, a hay, grain, wood and coal supply store, at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Vine Street near a fire station north of downtown Berkeley.

In 1898, August enlisted in the Eighth Corps of the United States Army, fighting in numerous engagements in the Spanish–American War in the Philippines as well as taking part in occupation duties following the close of formal combat. Vollmer left the military in August 1899 and returned to Berkeley. In March 1900, he began working for the local post office.

Law enforcement

In 1904, Vollmer became a local hero when he leapt onto a runaway railroad freight car on Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley and applied its brakes, preventing a disastrous collision with a loaded passenger coach at the Berkeley station. This event led to his election as town marshal on April 10, 1905.

In 1907, Vollmer was re-elected town marshal. He was also elected president of the California Association of Police Chiefs, even though, by title, he was not yet a police chief himself. In 1909, Berkeley created the office of police chief, and Vollmer became the first to hold that office.

Drawing on his military experience, and his own research, Vollmer reorganized the Berkeley police force. Vollmer had discovered that very little literature existed in the United States on the subject of police work, so he located and read a number of European works on the subject, in particular, ''Criminal Psychology'', by Hans Gross, an Austrian criminologist, and ''Memoirs of Vidocq'', by Eugène François Vidocq

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