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Peter J. Keenan was born in Hell’s
Kitchen during the Roaring Twenties. Shortly after his 20th birthday in 1942, he enlisted in the United
States Navy. During World War II he served as a radio operator on a submarine in the South Pacific and
South China seas. In 1946, following his discharge from the Navy, he joined the New York Police Department.
He spent twenty years as a uniformed police officer in the patrol branch. In 1967, after retiring from the police department he became a Revenue Officer and later a
Special Agent, Criminal Investigator with the United States Treasury Department. From 1981 until his retirement from Federal
civil service in 1989 he was assigned as the Internal Revenue Service’s Intelligence Representative to the United States
National Central Bureau of INTERPOL located in Washington, D.C. Over 135 countries were affiliated with this famous criminal
investigative agency during that period. His assignment entailed occasional foreign travel to the international headquarters
of INTERPOL at St. Cloud, located outside of Paris, France, and various countries in South America and the Caribbean. Constables
on Patrol is Peter Keenan’s first book.
According to the book description of
Constables on Patrol, it “is a police story centering on a recently discharged U.S. Navy veteran
of World War II who commences a career as a New York City police officer in 1946. An experienced, dedicated police captain,
recognizing in this new officer those qualities which he believes justifies the term New York's Finest attributed to the
police force "adopts" the new recruit. The officer, exhibiting wisdom beyond his brief period of experience in the
department, stumbles upon an arsonist in the act of torching a Chinese restaurant. This shoot-out sets off a startling chain
of events which culminates in murder and high-level police corruption.”
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About the New York Police
Department (NYPD): The
first law-enforcement officer began to patrol the trails and paths of New York City when it was known as New Amsterdam, and
was a Dutch settlement and fort in the year 1625. This lawman was known as a "Schout – fiscal" (sheriff –
attorney) and was charged with keeping the peace, settling minor disputes, and warning colonists if fires broke out at night.
The first Schout was a man named Johann Lampo. The
Rattle Watch was a group of colonists during the Dutch era (1609 - 1664) who patrolled from sunset until dawn. They carried
weapons, lanterns and wooden rattles (that are similar to the ratchet noisemakers used during New Year celebrations). The
rattles made a very loud, distinctive sound and were used to warn farmers and colonists of threatening situations. Upon hearing
this sound, the colonists would rally to defend themselves or form bucket-brigades to put out fires. The rattles were used
because whistles had not yet been invented. The Rattle Watchmen also are believed to have carried lanterns that had green
glass inserts. This was to help identify them while they were on patrol at night (as there were no streetlights at that time).
When they returned to their Watch House from patrol, they hung their lantern on a hook by the front door to show that the
Watchman was present in the Watch House. Today, green lights are still hung outside the entrances of Police Precincts as a
symbol that the "Watch" is present and vigilant. When the High Constable of New York City, Jacob Hays retired from service in 1844, permission was granted by the
Governor of the state to the Mayor of the City to create a Police Department. A force of approximately 800 men under the first
Chief of Police, George W. Matsell, began to patrol the City in July of 1845. They wore badges that had an eight-pointed star
(representing the first 8 paid members of the old Watch during Dutch times). The badges had the seal of the City in their
center and were made of stamped copper. Source: nycpolicemuseum.org /html/faq.html#begin
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