Police Books

Kevin J. Mullen

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The Toughest Gang in Town: Police Stories From Old San Francisco
Kevin J. Mullen  More Info

Chinatown Squad: Policing the Dragon From the Gold Rush to the 21st Century
Kevin J. Mullen  More Info

Dangerous Strangers: Minority Newcomers and Criminal Violence in the Urban West, 1850-2000
Kevin J. Mullen  More Info
Let Justice Be Done: Crime and Politics in Early San Francisco (Nevada Studies in History and Political Science)
Kevin J. Mullen  More Info

About the San Francisco Police Department

In his inaugural address in August 1849, John Geary, the first elected alcalde (mayor/judge) in Gold Rush San Francisco, reminded the newly elected council that the town was "without a single policeman…. [or] the means of confining a prisoner for an hour."

 

On August 13 the council selected Malachi Fallon as San Francisco's first Captain (Chief) of Police. Fallon in turn appointed a deputy captain, three sergeants and 30 officers to comprise the first regular municipal police department in American San Francisco.

 

Today, the San Francisco Police Department is a large metropolitan police department which is organized into four bureaus: Administration, Field Operations, Investigations and Airport.

 

The Administration Bureau provides support for the other bureaus of the San Francisco Police Department and is frequently the liaison with other city agencies as well as the Board of Supervisors.  The Administration Bureau of the San Francisco Police Department has a number of units and divisions: Behavioral Science Unit, Staff Services Division, Fiscal Division, Support Services Division, Planning Division, Technology Division, Risk Management, and the Training and Education Division.

 

The Field Operations Bureau contains the Headquarters, fugitive Recovery Enforcement Team, Metro Division, Golden Gate Division, Homeland Security Unit, Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving and Traffic Company.  The Investigative Bureau is organized into five divisions by crime or specialty: Forensic Services, Property Crimes, Personal Crimes, Juvenile and Family Services and Narcotics and Vice. 

 

Source:

sfgov.org

Kevin J. Mullen served for more than twenty-six years with the San Francisco Police Department and retired at the rank of deputy chief. He has written extensively in magazines and newspapers on criminal justice issues. He is the author of Let Justice Be Done: Crime and Politics in Early San Francisco, Dangerous Strangers: Minority Newcomers and Criminal Violence in the Urban West, 1850-2000 and The Toughest Gang in Town: Police Stories From Old San Francisco.

 

According to the book description of Dangerous Strangers: Minority Newcomers and Criminal Violence in the Urban West, 1850-2000, “Have newcomers to American cities been responsible for a disproportionate amount of violent crime? Dangerous Strangers takes up this question by examining the incidence of criminal violence among several waves of immigrant/ethnic groups in San Francisco over 150 years. By looking at a variety of groups--Irish, German, Italian, and Chinese immigrants, primarily--and their different experiences at varying times in the city's history, this study addresses the issue of how much violence can be attributed to new groups' treatment by the host society and how much can be traced to traits found in their community of origin. Dangerous Strangers fills an acknowledged gap in the literature of homicide studies and broadens our understanding of newcomer violence.”

According to the book description of The Toughest Gang in Town: Police Stories From Old San Francisco, it is “Fascinating, true, but little known stories from the dark side of San Francisco's criminal justice history.”

According to the book description of Chinatown Squad: Policing the Dragon From the Gold Rush to the 21st Century, “From Nineteenth Century Tong Wars, to recent efforts by Hong Kong Triads to murder their way into control of Chinatown rackets, a small group of San Francisco police officers has battled crime and vice in the nation s oldest established Chinese community.”

According to one reader of Chinatown Squad: Policing the Dragon From the Gold Rush to the 21st Century, “This is the story of San Francisco, it's police department and crime in it's Chinatown. It is a story of human foibles and changing morals. The author, Kevin J. Mullin, discusses corrupt politicians, policemen and gangsters. He also discusses individuals of high moral and physical courage who could not be dissuaded from doing their duty. While written has a popular history it reads like a fast paced crime thriller. This book does what good literature is suppose to do, it gives us insight to our nature and the human condition.”

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