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Police chief directed force into modern era
By SCOTT TAYLOR HARTZELL ST. PETERSBURG -- In 1927, domestic beasts plagued J. Riley Reichert and the local police. "Animals," Reichert said. "We motorcycle officers had to spend most of our time rounding them up -- pigs, mules, cows and horses." For six years, Reichert steered wayward creatures off roads and guided foolish souls to jail. He advanced in rank and in 1945 became chief. "He did everything possible to upgrade the department," said Lionel Blakeney, 82, who served under Reichert. "The modern era of the police department can properly be dated from the appointment of J.R. Reichert as chief," historian Walter Fuller wrote of the man who early on assumed the name of his father, Jake. Born in 1903 and armed later with only a country grade school education, Reichert arrived with three friends in 1925 in a 1922 Ford. The trip, including a 5-cent hotel stay, set the Carbondale, Ill., native back $13. Reichert worked at the post office before joining the force Jan. 18, 1927. "I came to work in a gray business suit," he said. "I had puttees (cloth leg covers), black shoes and they gave me a cap and a badge. I was on my way." Reichert was among 59 police personnel (compared to 514 in December 2001). Equipment consisted of a fingerprint camera kit and four Model-T Fords. Police radios in the city of 27,000 people didn't exist; the First Avenue S station was infested with rats. "Shifts were 10 hours a day, seven days a week," said Reichert's son, attorney Carlton R. Reichert, 60. "No paid vacations. No sick leave. Officers were paid in scripts, which were redeemed at local stores. Many officers couldn't read." Officers provided their own motorcycles and had to log 75 miles each beat. Sergeants checked odometers. "Motorcycles were the only rolling stock," the St. Petersburg Times wrote. "(They) could get up and go." Reporters often rode with motorcycle police, as did former Times general manager Tom Harris when Reichert was called to subdue a rampaging female evangelist at a nightclub. "They arrived just in time," it was reported, "for Harris to get hit with a plate. Jake was struck on the head by flying crockery." Reichert's first gambling raid nearly cost him his life. "They told me to stand at the back door and keep anyone from coming out," Reichert recalled. "Two dozen people ran out the back door -- all of them at once. I was buried three deep and darned near trampled to death." Real bedlam erupted, Reichert said, when horses challenged automobiles. "Two of them got loose one night. One plunged his hoof through a motorist's windshield. Other one was run through by the radiator ornament. Killed 'em both." Before becoming a sergeant in 1933, Reichert had logged 160,000 motorcycle miles. He married that year and later raised two children with his wife, Helen. "He carried me over the crosswalk to school," said Aimee Shingler, Reichert's stepdaughter. "He taught me how to drive and shoot at the pistol range, where we would picnic." In 1937, Reichert became desk sergeant. He would serve as lieutenant and captain before 1945, the year he became chief. "There were mild protests about a German running the department during the war," said Carlton Reichert, who often accompanied the chief to work. "Policing was a family thing back then." Reichert established the first police school, the first traffic bureau and the first juvenile guidance program. He spearheaded the organization of the Tampa Bay Area Police Chiefs Association. "He was a fine, well-dressed, well-respected man who did a good job under the conditions with which he had to operate," said E. Wilson "Bud" Purdy, 83, who followed Reichert as chief. In 1958, the effects of smoking three packs of Lucky Strikes a day forced Reichert into retirement. He was pleased, he said, "to see us change from a Keystone Cop-type department to a department that now has the most modern equipment, highly specialized commanding officers and well-trained patrolmen." Reichert received a $5,100 annual pension. "He missed law enforcement very much," Carlton Reichert said. "He just couldn't go on." For two years, Reichert worked as a Webb's City investigator. He then served six years as a vault custodian for the Federal Savings and Loan Association. On Sept. 26, 1966, Reichert died at Mound Park Hospital of emphysema at age 63. "As we traveled from the funeral, there were motorcycle officers at every major intersection," Shingler said. "They got off their bikes and saluted. I cried." -- Scott Taylor Hartzell can be reached at hartzel@msn.com.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks Letters |
