Robert B. Powers
Robert B. Powers, was a prominent police officer in the history of California, first as Chief of Police in Bakersfield, California and as the chief enforcement officer at the state level during which he co-established one of the earliest training programs for police in matters of race relations.
Biography
Birth and youth
Robert "Bob" Boyd Powers was born October 3, 1900, in Las Vegas, New Mexico. He was the second eldest son of Stephen and M. Powers, themselves both born in Kentucky. By 1910 he had an elder brother Joshua, two elder sisters and three younger sisters. All the siblings were born in New Mexico. Father Stephen had been born around 1866 in Hawesville, Kentucky. His grandfather had many years of service as a soldier, lawyer, and banker in Kentucky. Through his grandfather Powers is kin to Tom Powers and Hiram Powers. Stephen Powers did not serve in the Civil War, though the state sided with the Union, and the family has traces back to Ireland before 1771.Powers dropped out of school in the fifth grade. Somewhat charmed at the romantic stories of Lawrence of Arabia and military service, he enlisted in military service at 17 years old and was assigned to the 12th Cavalry Regiment. He worked as a personnel sergeant in 1920, and the US Census had his as a soldier at Camp Furlong near Luna, New Mexico. He later worked as a clerk in the office of the chief of cavalry in Washington, D.C. until 1922. After being discharged, he served as a state trooper and corporal in New Jersey into 1923. His grandfather died in Louisville, Kentucky, that year. Powers quit that job after hoping for advancement but working for an oil company to February 1924 was not it. Neither was re-enlisting as he found after a few months in 1924 at Fort Slocum. He then worked as a railroad "special agent" protecting trains and added time as a deputy sheriff in New Mexico and Arizona.
Bakersfield police force
Powers was hired as a motorcycle patrolman in January 1928 for the Bakersfield Police Department though his actual work initially was as a stenographer. And he married Mildred Irwin, daughter of a former district attorney, December 1928.Because of his training as a solo officer earlier he made a reputation of solo achievements in the force and was promoted to sergeant in 1930. In the US Census had the Powers family of Robert and Mildred living on 19th St, Bakersfield renting a home paying $30/mth, listed as a traffic officer. He developed an interest in traffic patrolling and management of security for schools. In 1931 he became a lieutenant, and later Chief of police of the Bakersfield police force in 1933. He also undertook professional training at the University of California, Los Angeles police school, the FBI school in Monterey and the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
The 1940 US Census finds the Powers family of Robert Sr, listed as Chief of Police, wife Mildred, sons Robert Jr and Stephen, and a nurse living with the family on B. Street in Bakersfield where Powers owned the home work $8000 in 1940. The family had lived in the same place in April 1935. His income for 1939 was about $3600
While police chief, Powers viewed the overall police force across the state as ill-educated, politically connected, and "corrupt" by modern standards. Out of a desire to shore up an independent and capable police force under his authority he began to revise procedures and investigative techniques and at the same time revise local regulation so that the chief's position was under a civil service categorization and thus under the city manager and not directly responsible to the city council. Powers instituted on-the-job training that included public school type curriculum like English classes so that officers would be more enabled to use words instead of weapons, and professional skills like handling fingerprints. He got the police to actually learn the law so that they didn't cause problems for themselves. In April 1944, Powers wrote a "letter to the editor" of the local newspaper about rules of engagement of police - that a policeman has an instant choice of killing someone or not whereas courts can take weeks or months to decide, and thus sometimes lets an apparent criminal escape. In late March his father had died in Coronado.
When he was appointed chief there were 38 houses of prostitution known in the community and only 11 when he left as Chief. Powers was also a strong voice in determining successive chiefs through to 1966. His appointed successor was able to close the remaining 11.
Significant actions while Chief
California Agricultural Strike 1933
Perhaps his first major engagement as chief of police was in the repercussions of the California Agricultural Strike 1933. Under his review the marchers were allowed to take murdered bodies to City Hall to make their protest, noting, "Their motives may have been to turn this country 'Red', but their activities in attempting to get a living wage for the workers were certainly justified."Case of Mathias Warren
From May to October 1938 a murder case consumed his time - that of Mathias Warren, father to Earl Warren who was soon to be was Attorney General, then governor, and in time, supreme court justice. On hearing of the murder then district attorney Warren, who had cultivated a relationship with police in various departments and reporters, came to Bakersfield along with many friends seeking to help and there was some tension how the investigation would proceed. Powers insisted and Warren let Powers be in charge. Ultimately no one was charged with the crime - Powers ended up viewing it as a breaking-and-entering that became murder from a transient as Mathias Warren had chosen to live on a messy property while his wealth was tied up in land holdings. Of course the matter was covered in many newspaper stories. However, as time went on the importance of the case, at least to Powers, had more to do with the increasing prominence of Earl Warren. Powers noted the transients of the period were the Okies, indeed The Grapes of Wrath was set in Bakersfield, and that the local establishment tried to keep them pushed out of the way.Women officers
In June 1939 Powers took the stance of supporting an initiative to get women on the police force if they were college educated and paid well. It proved difficult to get the right funding with no officers hired by March 1941. However the first was hired by summer 1941 and by the spring of 1942 what women officers and staff should wear was an active area of conversation.Probed by political backlash
Powers had run across a local politician taking a bribe and sought prosecution. Through assistance with then attorney general Earl Warren a case was pursued but ended in a hung jury. Powers was himself then put under investigation by the city council and reports on its progress were carried in the newspapers March-to-April 1942. The final judgement was that the case against Powers was politically motivated and he had done no significant wrong. Powers took a leave of absence and for a period in World War II Powers and his lead staff were all enlisted in the Coast Guard from May 1942 to July 1943, ending service as chief gunner's mate, and instructor in gunnery.State Chief
Soon after returning to service in Bakersfield Powers was called up for a state level service, taking another leave of absence from Bakersfield. In March 1944 Powers was appointed "coordinator of law enforcement agencies" under California Attorney General Robert W. Kenny's and was called "a sensitive and intelligent man" as wartime state committee on law enforcement under then Governor Earl Warren.In December 1944 Powers wrote for the committee advising fair treatment of Japanese as the war ended. Powers worked under Kenney on the peaceful return of the Japanese returnees with the War Relocation Authority and aided returning Nisei who had suffered vigilante attacks in August 1945. Powers position was extended after war time in January 1945 and the family moved to Sacramento in February.
Race relations
In early 1945 Powers was directed to a race relations meeting in Chicago with the new American Council on Race Relations and began an endeavor of learning himself and then promulgating race relations issues across police departments. The first major project of their cooperation then started in Richmond, California with Davis McEntire, in September. Initial efforts were aimed at training the police in human relations including trying to eliminate prejudice and present the unfairness of segregation and discrimination based on race - factors later observed to be widespread needs. The work brought together leaders of the California Department of Corrections, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Japanese American Citizens League, and a Nisei, second-generation American of Japanese descent, US Marine. Together the social norms and prejudices of the day were vented, discussed, and broken down across a week of open-ended discussions. Following the training incendiary incidents arose in the community and the police took novel actions ensuring fairness and peace was retained. The Saturday Evening Post covered it in "Cops don't have to be brutal", December 28, 1946. Following this numerous police departments even outside California were informed of the training and a booklet A Guide to Race Relations for Peace Officers was created and distributed, There was a prospective project by the young American Council on Race Relations using it and Kenny and Powers had worked on a documentary film on race relations and police departments but Frederick N. Howser, the next Attorney General, dismissed Powers and the project. Powers had been writing the script, working with Edwin Embree. Out of this Powers was on a short list of leaders in the field though more recent scholarship critiqued the program for not including the local minority leadership of the time.Powers retired from police service in 1947 over differences with the new administration and was interested in promoting race relations issues.