Midnight police patrol
February 8, 2010 – 1:00 am

Police on a early morning patrol talk with a driver of a car going wrong way on Higuera Street. Photo by Larry Jamison/Telegram-Tribune
I had a request a few weeks back from Taylor Peterson asking if there were any photos in the files of old SLO PD police cars. This is the best I could find as of now, and the story indicates that the problems police face are similar today, almost 40 years later. Photos were by Larry Jamison
June 15, 1973
Midnight meeting, then patrolmen cruise the city for morning watch
By Marita Hernandez
Staff WriterThey meet at midnight in the building’s basement.
There’s a line-up, and inspection. They get instructions then take their posts.
Susan Gray — “The main cog in our wheel,” according to her immediate superior, watch commander Lt. Winston Morrissey — takes her position in the small radio room upstairs.
The four men each take a car.
This is the beginning of another Saturday morning watch at the San Luis Obispo police station.
The men will spend the next eight hours traveling 400 miles on San Luis Obispo’s streets.
Before leaving the station Morrissey takes a look at the city map on the wall next to the radio room. It’s dotted with hundreds of black pins, each representing an accident. The red ones are injury accidents.
By the end of the year, there will probably be 124 of them.
The map doesn’t yet have green pins. These will depict fatal accidents, three a year on the average, Morrissey says.
On his way to his car, Morrissey is approached by an officer from the previous watch.
“You’ll probably find a hot one out there tonight.” The officer refers to a stolen car report in his hand.
Morrissey heads downtown. That’s where the patrolmen will concentrate efforts on this early Saturday morning until the bars close,” he said.
The radio to the right of Morrissey’s seat is in constant use, either receiving information on the whereabouts and actions of the other patrolmen or relaying Morrissey’s words.
To the right of the radio an upright shotgun is locked into place.
The officer keeps his window open. He listens, and his eyes turn toward any foreign sound. He also carefully studies the dark on all sides for a clue of anything out of the ordinary.
Not much happens the first hour. There’s a drive down a secluded back city road. It’s dark, so spotlights are turned on. This is a good place to junk stolen cars, Morrissey says.
A car is spotted ahead. Morrissey gets out of his car, taking the club he keeps on the seat. He seldom leaves the car without it.
After an exchange of words the car moves on. “It was a couple of lovers,” the officer explains.
Morrissey has been a member of the San Luis Obispo police department for 10 years. He joined the force after a hitch in the Coast Guard.
He was promoted to watch commander eight months ago. In this he supervises the patrolmen on his shift. There are three eight hour shifts a day, five patrolmen per shift, each with a watch commander.
Back on the downtown streets, Morrissey passes two police cars, their amber lights flashing. Over the radio he learns two teenagers had a few cases of beer in their car.
“A citation probably will be issued,” he says.
But soon there follows another radio report: Marijuana also was found in the car.
He returns to the scene as the two young men are handcuffed and put in the back seat of one of the police cars.
From then on, it is one set of flashing red or yellow lights after another. Hardly minutes go by without all four patrolmen being occupied with arrests or citations.
Morrissey complains there are not enough patrolmen to patrol the city adequately.
“All you need are two incidents at the same time and the whole force is tied up.”
He explains that since there is only one man to each car, whenever one is tied up another immediately goes to the scene to back him up.
“All we do is go from one incident to another. There’s no time left to patrol.”
Morrissey passes by another set of yellow lights. The police officer gives him what appears to be a peace sign. Morrissey explains this is actually code for “duce” or 23102, the penal code section number for drunk driving.
Within three hours the policemen have stopped nine cars, assisted a few lost drivers, and stalled cars, tested the sobriety of a few drivers and made six arrests. The arrests were mostly of drunk drivers and one man stumbling on a downtown street corner.
Morrissey passes up two patrol cars, amber lights flashing, who have stopped another drunken driver suspect.The patrolmen take out an empty beer can and liquor bottle. By the time Morrissey drives around the block the roof of the car looks like a liquor store shelf. There are several fifths and quart bottles, a half gallon jug, beer cans and a few pill bottles. Most of them are empty or nearly so.
The driver, a middle aged man, is asked to walk on a sidewalk crack, one of the tests given to suspected drunk drivers. The man nearly falls into the bushes. He is handcuffed and led into a police car.
One of the patrolmen informs Morrissey the man has no driver’s license. It was revoked for driving under the influence of liquor.
It’s been a busy night for these officers. But they still have five hours to go on the shift.




April 7, 1926
April 13, 1926

































