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Reformist chief pursued law and order with ardor
By SCOTT TAYLOR HARTZELL © St. Petersburg Times, published December 27, 2000 ST. PETERSBURG -- In 1958, Chief E. Wilson Purdy launched the city's police force into the modern era. Purdy renovated the department's equipment and procedures and empowered women and minority officers. He established the St. Petersburg Police Academy and Florida's first police degree program. The "department moved to its present high plateau of standards and performance with the appointment of ... Purdy," historian Walter Fuller wrote. "Purdy was a household name in St. Petersburg," a police history noted about the former FBI agent, Dade County sheriff and state police commissioner. Before resigning as chief in 1963, Purdy was a weapons expert and a martial arts master. "He's the fastest man on the draw and is an expert at judo," the press wrote. Born in 1919, Purdy at age 12 helped apprehend two coal thieves at his Orleans Township, Mich., school. It was his first bust. "I have always since wanted to be a policeman," said Purdy, now 81. He and his wife, Jane, live at Suncoast Manor in the Pinellas Point neighborhood. On Aug. 15, 1942, Purdy graduated from Michigan State University, received his Army commission and got married. "(Jane) still speaks to me" three children and 58 years later, Purdy said. During World War II, Purdy directed 150 military police on a 3,200-square-mile area near Manila. "I then came home and joined the (FBI)," he said, seated near an autographed photo of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Purdy came here in 1947 and subsequently became the senior resident agent. City Manager Ross E. Windom plucked Purdy from the bureau in 1958 and made him police chief. "The department was grossly undermanned," Purdy recalled, "grossly underpaid." Sporting a well-rounded jaw and a twice-busted nose, Purdy challenged his men. "He could be as tough as he needed to be," said Denis Quilligan, 77, then with the state attorney's office. Purdy fired or forced the resignations of 16 of the department's 120 men. He tripled manpower after establishing candidate testing and then nearly doubled officers' salaries to about $100 a week. Upon Purdy's insistence, the city replaced the department's faded uniforms and aged autos. Many cars had more than 100,000 miles on them, the ex-chief recalled. "The best thing I ever did was upgrade the department ... other than survive," said Purdy, a Christian Scientist. About 1959, Purdy established the St. Petersburg Police Academy near Bayboro. An old Coast Guard barracks with some folding chairs, he said, was the state's first academy. Spurred by Purdy, St. Petersburg Junior College added a police administration school about 1960, Fuller wrote. "I was chief during the day and teacher at night," Purdy noted. The first female officers served in the early 1960s. "There were some reservations," said Helen Sweatt, 67, one of the pioneers. "They didn't assign us high-profile cases." Purdy's daughter, Pam Mesmer, called the chief "my hero." Mesmer, 54, joined the force in 1972. During the turbulent '60s, black officers patrolled only in black neighborhoods and couldn't arrest whites. Purdy slowly began empowering them citywide. Sam Jones, one of the first black officers, remarked in 1985: "He made you feel like a police officer." Some officials, however, labeled Purdy overzealous and "out to get his Ph.D -- politics hot and dirty." He resigned in 1963. "I either had to join them or leave," he said. Former Lt. Tom Brock, 77, with the force 22 years, called Purdy "one of the best police chiefs I ever worked under." Pennsylvania Gov. William Scranton hired Purdy in 1963 to head his state police. In one year, Purdy arrested 1,000 Pittsburgh area state officers on gambling charges. Charged to rid the force of favoritism, Purdy replaced the political appointment of officers with merit testing. "That didn't sit well with politicians," Purdy said. It's "tragic," Scranton wrote, that "political effort" could oust Purdy in 1965. Purdy became Dade County's sheriff in 1966. "(Dade) was corrupt from stem to stern," Purdy said. When Santo Trafficante once refused to leave, Purdy had the crime boss arrested for vagrancy. Purdy improved record-keeping, doubled the vice squad and directed nearly 3,000 personnel before resigning in 1979. While in Miami, Purdy received his master's degree in management and business administration from Florida International University. Purdy worked for the security firm Wackenhut Corp. from 1980 to 1982. Until 1994, he assisted attorneys in case evaluation and preparation as an expert witness. Through it all, Purdy said, "there's only two things I remember: being a cop and being married." - Scott Taylor Hartzell can be reached at Hartzel@gate.net.
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