RM Vivas
US Veteran
As most of you know, I hold hard copies of just about all of the surviving NYPD revolver sales paperwork.
The ledgers cover Colt, S&W and Ruger and goes back to about 1921 or so.
When I got these records I started putting them into a spreadsheet that accounted for make, model, serial number, date of sale and record location (what book, what page).
Just getting that very basic info logged into a spreadsheet took a couple years.
In the past few years, as I try to become a classically trained historian who specializes in firearms history, I’ve revisited these records and sought to expand upon them. Part of this process involved finding other document sources that would help me confirm and, in some cases decipher, the surviving records.
One of the sources I stumbled across was a daily ‘newspaper’ published by the City of New York called The City Record. The City Record, as it name suggests, was the official publication of record of the City of New York. Won a contract to electrify a city wharf? It’d be announced in The City Record. Civil service test for operating engineers? Announced in The City Record.
What makes The City Record so valuable for what I do is that it published each weeks Weekly Report of The Police Department. These weekly reports contained all sorts of valuable information including a list of who was being appointed a Patrolman and being sent to the Police Academy. For my purposes, this was perfect! I now had a very legible typewritten list of who was being appointed and when. I could take that list, look up that date in the revolver ledgerbooks (appointment dates were usually the same day the guy would get his gun and shield, if not, then within a day or two) and use the printed list to decipher and confirm some of the Sanskrit-like scrawls that until now I could not identify.
One aspect that had been gnawing away at me though was that in addition to the Appointment lists, there was all sorts of other data that could be potentially useful to someone who wanted a clearer picture of a particular officers career. If one were doing genealogy type research, some of this stuff would be fantastic!
Here’s the type of data I’ve found in the reports:
Appointments – Guys who were appointed Patrolman. Would have the fellows name, date of appointment, command (usually Police Academy) and, interestingly, his annual salary (for WW2 the average Patrolman was making two grand a year not including tips.
Appointments Revoked – Guys who had their appointments revoked with no specificity as to why. Would have fellows name, rank, command and effective date of revocation.
Promotions – Lists a fellows name, rank ,command and then his new rank, command and effective date as well as his new annual salary. A Captain made about 2.5-3 times what a Patrolman made.
Transfers – Lists a fellows name, rank, command and then his new command and effective date. You know someone screwed the pooch when they got transferred from a north Bronx Pct. to a house in south Staten Island! “I’m sending you so far south you’re gonna be wearing a f***ing sombrero to work! Bring your passport!”
Retirements – Lists a fellows name, rank, command and the effective date as well as his pension amount. Earlier (pre-1930 entries) also listed shield number and Surgeons Certificate number if disability pension.
Details – Lists a fellows name, rank, command and then his new assimilated rank, command and effective date. Usually Captains getting detailed as Deputy Inspectors or Inspectors to other commands.
Name Changes – Lists a fellows name, rank, command and then his new name and effective date. Usually this is Patrolman Joe Syzkewickzycz who changes his name to Joe Blow to save time and ink. Also, Policewomen who get married and stay on ‘da Job have their new married name announced.
Reimbursements – Lists the name, rank and command of a fellow who has put in for reimbursement for damaged uniform or gear. Usually it says something like ”Reimbursement of $35 to Patrolman Joe Blow, 34th Pct. to replace service overcoat damaged in performance of duty.” Every once in a while a fellow will put in for a hat and cap device as well. Only saw one fellow put in for a new gun. I should research that one more; almost certainly some guy who did a hasty water rescue.
Died – Lists a fellows name, rank, command and date of death. An astonishing number of guys died each year. These are not all LOD deaths at some criminals hands. Car wrecks, heart attacks, cancer, etc.
Services Ceased – I’m not sure about this one. I think it’s fellows who, for whatever reason, chose to resign. Lists a fellows name, rank, command and effective date as well as his new annual salary. Mostly Probationary Patrolmen.
Trials – This one is great. It lists name, rank and command of guys brought up on charges and what their penalty was; penalties assessed as ‘days’. Presumably how many days pay you lost. ½ day, 1 day, 2 day, 5 day, 10 day and I’ve seen a couple 30 day (musta killed someone). In the pre-war reports it would list the offense and some of them are really interesting. A shocking, truly shocking, number of folks getting a 2 day rip for being intoxicated. Other charges: failure to make (logbook) entry, being off post, talking to a woman while on post(!!), insubordination, lateness, foul language, etc. Some interesting stuff.
Reward Granted – Another great one. Lists fellows name, rank and command and then the date he is authorized to collect a reward for some act of police work. Almost always detectives, the Reward Granted notes are fascinating. If you recovered a stolen automobile it would list which insurance company was paying you a reward, usually $20. Picked up a military deserter? $100. Usually, but not always, permission to accept the reward was conditional upon %15 going to the pension fund and %10 going to the relief fund. Some guys were making half a years salary just on rewards!
Reinstated – Lists a fellows name, rank, command and annual salary guys who left the job for whatever reason but came back.
So I’m looking at all this information flowing past me and I feel like it’s got to have some value.
I decided that when I’m transcribing the Appointments list data, I’m going to put ALL the other data in too (except reimbursements but I may re-visit that exception).
The idea is once the database is complete, I can type in a fellows name and it will spit back to me a report with every time the guy is mentioned in Weekly Reports. The result is I should be able to get something that looks like this:
Joe Blow
1/1/29 - Appointed Probationary Patrolman @ 1600 per annum
2/3/31 - Transferred Patrolman from 12th Pct. To Harbor Unit
3/4/35 – Promoted from Patrolman Harbor Unit to SGT @ $225o per annum assigned Manhattan West HQ
4/5/37 – Trial, penalty assessed 3 days
5/6/39 etc etc
6/7/42 – etc etc
7/8/47 – etc etc
1/1/49 – Retired LT from 5th Pct. @ $3300 per annum
I just completed the 1946 series and am working on the others and it looks quite promising.
Another interesting statistical note is that one can also see how many guys were hired, fired and retired in any given period. For instance, 1946 shows about 3,000 new hires, while 1942 (so far, I’m not done in there yet) shows just a couple hundred (so far!).
So, this is how I spend my time. I think its termed Mission Creep!
The ledgers cover Colt, S&W and Ruger and goes back to about 1921 or so.
When I got these records I started putting them into a spreadsheet that accounted for make, model, serial number, date of sale and record location (what book, what page).
Just getting that very basic info logged into a spreadsheet took a couple years.
In the past few years, as I try to become a classically trained historian who specializes in firearms history, I’ve revisited these records and sought to expand upon them. Part of this process involved finding other document sources that would help me confirm and, in some cases decipher, the surviving records.
One of the sources I stumbled across was a daily ‘newspaper’ published by the City of New York called The City Record. The City Record, as it name suggests, was the official publication of record of the City of New York. Won a contract to electrify a city wharf? It’d be announced in The City Record. Civil service test for operating engineers? Announced in The City Record.
What makes The City Record so valuable for what I do is that it published each weeks Weekly Report of The Police Department. These weekly reports contained all sorts of valuable information including a list of who was being appointed a Patrolman and being sent to the Police Academy. For my purposes, this was perfect! I now had a very legible typewritten list of who was being appointed and when. I could take that list, look up that date in the revolver ledgerbooks (appointment dates were usually the same day the guy would get his gun and shield, if not, then within a day or two) and use the printed list to decipher and confirm some of the Sanskrit-like scrawls that until now I could not identify.
One aspect that had been gnawing away at me though was that in addition to the Appointment lists, there was all sorts of other data that could be potentially useful to someone who wanted a clearer picture of a particular officers career. If one were doing genealogy type research, some of this stuff would be fantastic!
Here’s the type of data I’ve found in the reports:
Appointments – Guys who were appointed Patrolman. Would have the fellows name, date of appointment, command (usually Police Academy) and, interestingly, his annual salary (for WW2 the average Patrolman was making two grand a year not including tips.
Appointments Revoked – Guys who had their appointments revoked with no specificity as to why. Would have fellows name, rank, command and effective date of revocation.
Promotions – Lists a fellows name, rank ,command and then his new rank, command and effective date as well as his new annual salary. A Captain made about 2.5-3 times what a Patrolman made.
Transfers – Lists a fellows name, rank, command and then his new command and effective date. You know someone screwed the pooch when they got transferred from a north Bronx Pct. to a house in south Staten Island! “I’m sending you so far south you’re gonna be wearing a f***ing sombrero to work! Bring your passport!”
Retirements – Lists a fellows name, rank, command and the effective date as well as his pension amount. Earlier (pre-1930 entries) also listed shield number and Surgeons Certificate number if disability pension.
Details – Lists a fellows name, rank, command and then his new assimilated rank, command and effective date. Usually Captains getting detailed as Deputy Inspectors or Inspectors to other commands.
Name Changes – Lists a fellows name, rank, command and then his new name and effective date. Usually this is Patrolman Joe Syzkewickzycz who changes his name to Joe Blow to save time and ink. Also, Policewomen who get married and stay on ‘da Job have their new married name announced.
Reimbursements – Lists the name, rank and command of a fellow who has put in for reimbursement for damaged uniform or gear. Usually it says something like ”Reimbursement of $35 to Patrolman Joe Blow, 34th Pct. to replace service overcoat damaged in performance of duty.” Every once in a while a fellow will put in for a hat and cap device as well. Only saw one fellow put in for a new gun. I should research that one more; almost certainly some guy who did a hasty water rescue.
Died – Lists a fellows name, rank, command and date of death. An astonishing number of guys died each year. These are not all LOD deaths at some criminals hands. Car wrecks, heart attacks, cancer, etc.
Services Ceased – I’m not sure about this one. I think it’s fellows who, for whatever reason, chose to resign. Lists a fellows name, rank, command and effective date as well as his new annual salary. Mostly Probationary Patrolmen.
Trials – This one is great. It lists name, rank and command of guys brought up on charges and what their penalty was; penalties assessed as ‘days’. Presumably how many days pay you lost. ½ day, 1 day, 2 day, 5 day, 10 day and I’ve seen a couple 30 day (musta killed someone). In the pre-war reports it would list the offense and some of them are really interesting. A shocking, truly shocking, number of folks getting a 2 day rip for being intoxicated. Other charges: failure to make (logbook) entry, being off post, talking to a woman while on post(!!), insubordination, lateness, foul language, etc. Some interesting stuff.
Reward Granted – Another great one. Lists fellows name, rank and command and then the date he is authorized to collect a reward for some act of police work. Almost always detectives, the Reward Granted notes are fascinating. If you recovered a stolen automobile it would list which insurance company was paying you a reward, usually $20. Picked up a military deserter? $100. Usually, but not always, permission to accept the reward was conditional upon %15 going to the pension fund and %10 going to the relief fund. Some guys were making half a years salary just on rewards!
Reinstated – Lists a fellows name, rank, command and annual salary guys who left the job for whatever reason but came back.
So I’m looking at all this information flowing past me and I feel like it’s got to have some value.
I decided that when I’m transcribing the Appointments list data, I’m going to put ALL the other data in too (except reimbursements but I may re-visit that exception).
The idea is once the database is complete, I can type in a fellows name and it will spit back to me a report with every time the guy is mentioned in Weekly Reports. The result is I should be able to get something that looks like this:
Joe Blow
1/1/29 - Appointed Probationary Patrolman @ 1600 per annum
2/3/31 - Transferred Patrolman from 12th Pct. To Harbor Unit
3/4/35 – Promoted from Patrolman Harbor Unit to SGT @ $225o per annum assigned Manhattan West HQ
4/5/37 – Trial, penalty assessed 3 days
5/6/39 etc etc
6/7/42 – etc etc
7/8/47 – etc etc
1/1/49 – Retired LT from 5th Pct. @ $3300 per annum
I just completed the 1946 series and am working on the others and it looks quite promising.
Another interesting statistical note is that one can also see how many guys were hired, fired and retired in any given period. For instance, 1946 shows about 3,000 new hires, while 1942 (so far, I’m not done in there yet) shows just a couple hundred (so far!).
So, this is how I spend my time. I think its termed Mission Creep!
