The Onion Field and LAPD K-38s

[CALREB]

Speaking on no radios and having a dime taped to your ID. When I was a young guy , late 70's on a small dept in IA. I noticed dark heavy glass red lights on all the tallest building, especially the corned buildings.
I asked the Asst. Chief, 40+ on the job,about it one day. He laughed and said when he was a young officer,you walked the beat. When you saw a red light lit up,you went to the station,and took one of the two cars to handle a call too far to walk to. Now thats old school,sounds great. REB

 

[Horseless Trooper]

Adam-12 and Police Story

They were two big influences in my career choice.We got portable radios in '87, two radios for a 24 man station. Ah the good old days. About two years ago I finaly got my Adam-12 gun, a 6in. M14-2. Luckily for me my Chief is a nice guy who indulges his dinosaur's whims and I get to carry it as my duty weapon. I'm not nostalgic enough to carry 158RNL though.

 

[Checkman]

Speaking on no radios and having a dime taped to your ID. When I was a young guy , late 70's on a small dept in IA. I noticed dark heavy glass red lights on all the tallest building, especially the corned buildings.
I asked the Asst. Chief, 50+ on the job,about it one day. He laughed and said when he was a young officer,you walked the beat. When you saw a red light lit up,you went to the station,and took one of the two cars to handle a call too far to walk to. Now thats old school,sounds great. REB

In my city we still have a few of those lights ontop of the older buildings. Until six years ago one of our retired officers worked part-time for the department taking care of the vehicles, building ect. He had retired from active duty in 95 after thirty-two years. He told me how they carried a pocket of dimes in his early years. When the light went red they walked to the nearest pay-phone and called dispatch. If the call was too far away they would also go to the station and get one of the two or three patrol cars.

Wow. Guess the citizenry just understood that there would be a delay in police response. Now if you don't get there within ten minutes of them calling they'll call dispatch complaining. Never mind that you might be on a higher priority call.

Times change.

 

[OIF2]

I'm not that old, but I remember my training officer stopping on Ventura Blvd to use one of the last remaining gamewells to call his girlfriend. He had his K38 6", with target hammer and narrow trigger, dangling from his right hip in a spit-shined clamshell. Definitely LAPD- classy.
Bob

 

[bgrafsr]

We didn't have hand held radios the first 7 years I was on the road. You knew the phone number to the places you normally checked out at and advised dispatch. When out on a call you took care of business or went back to the car to call for backup. Most of us actually didn't want walkies to start with, Sam Brown belt was already too heavy and crowded. Today the younger deputies wouldn't know what to do with out a hand held.

When I joined our Dept. in 1972, we had 3 "beat" lights strung up on Broad St., as we had a walking beat patrol in the downtown area. If they needed you, they turned on the lights, which were red, and then you called in on one of the 3 phone boxes along Broad St. A year or so later we got the walkie talkies, which were rather large and came in a leather case with a strap that you slung over your shoulder, Sam Browne style. The 1st or 2nd day I had one while walking the beat, I saw a stolen car being driven in the downtown area and radioed in. We recovered the car and arrested the thief.

 

[nody]

You can watch several seasons of Adam-12 (the original, as well as the awful sequels), Dragnet, Emergency, and other wonderful shows from the 60s-70s online for free at Hulu, no membership or sign-in required.

Adam-12 - Full Episodes and Clips streaming online - Hulu

Hulu - Search


I've watched them all, and they are great.

I have zero interest in modern TV. I can't even bear to watch the news anymore, all of D.C. being so dreadful, especially that clown in the White House, and all the people who's job it is to stop him, but don't.

 

[BUFF]

Some of you guys make me feel positively young!

 

[Stu Honea]

This is a great thread and I salute everyone who posted on LAPD and served there. Did anyone ever sew handcuff keys in the back waist lining of their uniform pants?
A lot of us did it in the old days.I think the Onion Field incident among others was the catalyst for this practice.
There were a few of us who tried to always think ahead,but some of the older guys thought it was silly.

 

[old bear]

Did anyone ever sew handcuff keys in the back waist lining of their uniform pants?

At one time Safariland (?) sold an oversize belt keeper that would hold a cuff key with an over sized head. I wore one of those for years.

 

[oldafsp]

Wow...lots of old memories reading this thread..

When I first went on the job, we had 3 Regency portable radios in the station. 1 channel, huge mothers that weighed about 5 pounds. If you were told to take one of those on a assignment you felt really important!

 

[tg4360]

Not guns but....

I remember my first AF duty station as an SP and we had these strange GE portables with a metal ferrel as the antenna connector.

Everyone would put the keys from the unit on the antenna when you were out of the vehicle but you learned quickly to not transmit that way as the key ring draped over your hand would give you a nasty RF burn.

S&W content: We had those M-15 combat masterpieces.

I'm still looking for one. Our later ones were parkerized and I've never seen one outside of the AF.

TG

 

[Iggy]

I carried a Freedom arms .22 in a pouch inside my waist band above the fly on my pants. I figgered maybe I could use the ploy of having to take a leak and unzipping my fly to get the gun. Seems like folks are a little a squeamish about frisking right there.

I still have one of those hand cuff key belt keepers. I probably would have never done so if I hadn't read the Onionfield.

 

[C&R Bill]

Thanks to everyone for this thread. When I went to the Tennessee state police academy in 1990, my small town department (40k population) had only switched to Beretta 92s from Smiths 2 yrs before, so I never got experience revolver police work, However, our handheld radios only worked about half the time, so does that give me partial credit as a partial dinosaur??

 

[C&R Bill]

A question for the old LAPD guys = Did they give you an option to use full power 357s in the model 19s I saw mentioned, or were you limited to using 38s in them?? Thanks, Bill

 

[demkofour]

I've read a lot of threads and posts here over the years, but this one has to rate as one of the best by far!
My department, the Suffolk County PD is fifty years old, and has a history of its own, but nothing like that of the LAPD and the sort.
Keep the stories coming you dinosaurs!

As an aside, my first issued duty pistol was a Smith 64-3 in a Jordan Border Patrol holster with 158 +p SWCHP rounds and dump pouches. That was in the fall of '82 so I guess I qualify as a bit of a dinosaur myself- life is good...

And not to completely hijack this thread, God Bless the boys of the Onion Field- their sacrifice can never be forgotten. And if not for them, the use of the BUG may not have happened so soon and so swiftly.

 

[LOBO]

This is a wonderful thread that I have thoroughly enjoyed reading.

 

[gboling]

To further hijack this thread, in Dec. 1970, when I was issued the 4' model 14-2, my issue holster was the full flap type that completely covered the stocks. As you can imagine, it was nearly impossible to get to the gun when seated in the passenger's seat and hard enough to get to when standing up.

The second thing I did when I graduated was to replace that holster. The first thing was to buy a 2" model 10 for a bug. I did keep that flap holster and carried it on rainy nights.

I had a terrible time trying to find a comfortable way to carry the M-10. After giving up on the back pocket and ancle holsters I settled on inside the wasteband, cross draw, where it was quite well hid by the Sam Browne belt. It was easy for me to get to and difficult for anyone else to get a hand on. I later found a jacket with a gun pocket inside at the left breast (equivilent of a shoulder holster). This proved to be great for cold weather until the jacket wore out, about 15 years later.

 

[MTS Cop]

This has been a fascinating read. I've always admired the LAPD. Although my only exposure to LAPD has been on TV and films it always struck me as a very squared away department. I can't recall ever seeing a cop looking sloppy or a banged up patrol car (I am seeing it throught the heavily filtered lens of TV though). I'm also kind of envious of the gun culture that seems to exist there. The LAPD seems to be a much more para-military than my beloved NYPD claims to be.

While they are both the biggest PD on each coast, it always amazes me how different each department is. I once met an LAPD officer who was visiting New York. I was standing on a foot post and he came over to BS while his family was in a store. He wanted to take a picture with my car, which I didn't have because I was on a foot post. The guy couldn't believe I didn't have a car and had to walk around all day. The idea of a foot post blew his mind. Truly different worlds....

 

[C&R Bill]

THANK YOU!!!!

I tried my DirectTV, and unless my "search-fu" absolutely sucks (quite possible) there are NO Adam 12 or Dragnet episodes currently showing!!!

You can watch several seasons of Adam-12 (the original, as well as the awful sequels), Dragnet, Emergency, and other wonderful shows from the 60s-70s online for free at Hulu, no membership or sign-in required.

Adam-12 - Full Episodes and Clips streaming online - Hulu

Hulu - Search


I've watched them all, and they are great.

I have zero interest in modern TV. I can't even bear to watch the news anymore, all of D.C. being so dreadful, especially that clown in the White House, and all the people who's job it is to stop him, but don't.

 

[old bear]

The guy couldn't believe I didn't have a car and had to walk around all day. The idea of a foot post blew his mind. Truly different worlds....
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We had 1900 hrs. - 0300 hrs. D.T.A. foot patrols all spring and summer.Guys almost fought to get that assignment. I loved walking a foot beat on the bar circuit.