Houston Blue: The Story of the Houston Police Department

11. Percy Heard and the War Years

111 11 Percy Heard and the War Years A s the 1930s came to conclusion, city politics were as complicated and acrimonious as ever as a new mayor took office and a new police chief was appointed. L. C. Brown became police chief in January 1939 and almost immediately set about putting his stamp on the force by demoting twenty-six police officers, forcing seven to retire and firing three others. He also closed three police substations and promoted many of the officers that Holcombe had demoted during his administration to their former ranks.1 The same year that saw the release of Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz also saw HPD open its first police training school for new recruits, under the direction of Captain L. D. Morrison. The five-week classes were conducted at the Sam Houston Coliseum. Moving farther away from its roots in patronage politics, the department subjected new recruits to more requirements than simple political party affiliation. In 1939, HPD adopted a military model for screening potential officers. Of the first 362 who passed the initial exam (out of 597), only seventy were selected as recruits and of these only fifty graduated. But due to budgetary constraints, only twenty-four would wear the HPD blue. The remaining twenty-six were put on a waiting list and would be considered for future jobs on the force or as special police officers. One of the questions asked on the written exam was, “Why do you want to be a police officer?” The same question was still on the test seventy years later. The year America entered World War II started out for the HPD like any other election year—with a new mayor and police chief. With Neal Picket taking office in 1941 as mayor, it was customary to appoint the new police chief or keep the old one. This was typically accomplished with little controversy . But it would not be the case with the selection of former San Antonio Police Chief, thirty-six-year-old Ray Ashworth. Born and educated in Kansas , Ashworth made a name for himself first on the football fields of high 112 Houston Blue school and at the Friends University, a Quaker institution. During college he made the all-conference team three times. Ashworth began his career as a patrolman in Wichita, Kansas in 1928—the first college graduate in the department. Within eight years he was promoted to assistant chief. He was next appointed assistant director of the Safety Division of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and moved to Evanston, Illinois at an annual salary of $3,600. From early on he expressed contempt for political patronage, which he demonstrated in his rooting out of politics from the San Antonio Police Department. Ironically, the Houston mayor’s selection of Ashworth, a chief from outside the HPD, proved unpopular in local political circles. However, there were many that approved the move, especially when there were prospects of appointing B. W. Payne as the new chief. Shortly after Pickett’s victory over Holcombe in the mayoral election, the Houston Press predicted that Pickett would select Payne. Clearly there were a number of Payne-haters in Houston. Several of them wrote letters to Mayor Neal Pickett lashing out against the potential choice of Payne as police chief. Attesting to the low esteem with which he was held in Houston, A. C. T. Thomasen wrote, “[Mayor] Mr. Pickett, I read in the press, that you favor Payne for Police Chief. That can not be true. That you should go to the gammling [sic] fraternity for a Police Chief.”2 P C R A, F , –A ,  Percy Heard and the War Years 113 In January 1941, members of the Park Place Union signed a petition lobbying against his selection as chief due to his association “with gamblers and racketeers.”3 Another writer, Alvis F. Day, had been on the police force for less than three years but felt compelled to note that “some of the older men would say that I haven’t learned enough to keep my mouth shut,” continuing, “The problem of naming our chief of Police I realize is a very difficult one. In solving this problem I feel sure you will consider those who have risk [sic] their jobs and have put their whole effort in helping you [win re-election]…. Even your opponent who...