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The “Society Cops” E In June 1939, Maj. Douglas King of Honolulu returned to his former home in England, hoping to be taken back into the British Army, but was rejected as being over the age limit. He returned to Hawaii and in May 1941, offered his services to his adopted country and was appointed a “dollar-a-year man” with the Honolulu Police Department in command of the Provisional Police.The Provisional Police consisted of twenty-five-hundred-odd men who had been recruited and trained by Mr. T. G. S. Walker. Generals Herron and Short thought these men could be used in an emergency throughout Oahu as guards. Major King doubted this because most of the men were key men from the utility companies, large business houses, the plantations, etc., and as it turned out afterwards, he was right. He conceived the idea, in conjunction with Chief of Police W. A. Gabrielson, of forming a Police Reserve of Honolulu businessmen to serve with the Honolulu Police Department in an emergency. On July 28, 1941, 124 selected men from all walks of life started training, and when the emergency arose on December 7, 1941, they were ready and went on duty and have been on the job ever since.Each man does at least one daily tour of duty every week from 4:00 P.M. to 11:00 P.M. and an additional tour of duty every sixth Sunday, so that a team of at least thirty Reserve Officers is on duty in their own cars as motor patrolmen seven days a week. They receive no pay and provide their own uniforms. The Department provides their equipment and insures their cars, but not the men themselves. All Reserve Officers receive nine weeks of training before going out on the beat by themselves.After their training they are commissioned as full-time Police Officers and have the same powers as Officers of the Regular Force. There have been 416 men commissioned in the Reserve since its inception in 1941. The present strength is 187. The majority of the men are haoles, but there are Hawaiians, Chinese, and Americans of 283 First published October 1945. Japanese ancestry.Their ages range from twenty-five to fifty-five and, with the exception of the first class who were asked to join, all others have volunteered their services. Many officers who have left the Reserves have joined the armed forces or left the Territory; pressure of business has caused other resignations. Major King is in charge and has a Regular Police Commission as Assistant Chief of Police. He is very ably assisted by Lt. Leon M. Straus and Sgt. Robert Kennedy, officers of the regular department, and his indispensable secretary, Mrs. Pang, known to all ranks as Bessie and to whose hard work and tact a great deal of the efficiency of the Honolulu Police Reserve is due. Several large cities on the mainland have tried to form Police Reserves, but with little success, so Honolulu has every reason to be proud and grateful to a body of men, who have served since December 7, and are still serving, and who receive more “kicks” than thanks. The Statistical Department’s reports show that although the Reserve Division only works on one of the three watches each day, in 1942 they handled 12 percent of all cases handled by the entire department; in 1943, 19 percent of all cases; and for the first nine months of 1944, 17 percent. Hawai‘i Chronicles 284 ...

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