Monday, September 15, 2014
Page 6
PERSPECTIVES (Column)
1891: L.A. Police Commission Approves Identification Badges for Reporters
By ROGER M. GRACE
Second in a Series
It appears that the earliest point at which a Los Angeles reporter sported a police press badge was 123 years ago.
Unlike the gold-plated shield depicted here last week that the district attorney bestowed on reporters who were in his good graces, the badge would not have been ornate, nor would it have been the gift of a public official. The May 21, 1891 issue of the Los Angeles Herald includes this item, in a report on a Police Commission session:
“James A. Bennett, of the Express, applied for permission to wear a special reporter’s police badge. Permission was duly granted on condition that he pay for the badge himself, and the chief was directed to confer with Mr. Bennett as to the design.”
Assuming that Bennett followed through, his badge would have been the first of its kind in the city.
His application to the Police Commission came on the heels of action by the board on April 29 approving the concept of press badges. The mechanics for controlling distribution of the badges were contained in a series of resolutions put forth by Commissioner Meredith S. Snyder, who would later be elected to three non-contiguous terms as mayor.
A report in the April 30 issue of the Express says that a press badge would authorize the bearer to pass through police lines, and notes:
“[T]he badges [are] to be kept in custody of the clerk of the board and issued by the board upon application of the reporter, accompanied by fee and credentials, to be held by him during good behavior or until retirement from business, revocable for cause by the board.”
A reporter for the Express (I assume Bennett) addressed the commissioners prior to the vote. The Express’s account says:
“He urged the adoption of the resolutions on the ground that policemen now make no distinction between refusing reporters passage through the lines and the general public against whom the lines are constructed. This is practically bringing the whole police force of the city to intercept a reporter in getting news, instead of this the force should facilitate reporters in their work, and these resolutions mean that they are instructed to do so, the badge acting to identify to the officer the reporter.”
The report relates that under an amendment that was approved, if the officer in charge of the police line thought that harm would be occasioned by the public gaining certain information, the reporter’s entry could be blocked.
Bennett doubtlessly knew of press badges in other locales, and wanted one.
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A supposed Civil War press badge, depicted at left (and found on various websites, so identified), was sold at an auction in Gettysburg in 2007 for $3,346. Heritage Auctions, which conducted the sale, made this representation at the time:
“[T]he Civil War saw the advent of the issuance of press badges to identify the press corps and to distinguish them from spies or civilians who had no place on the battle lines.”
However, I checked historical resources and was unable to find any substantiation for that statement. “Passes” were issued by each side, granting permission to travel to and from enemy territory…but I find no reference to “badges” for reporters, or even passes for them.
What was the source Heritage Auctions relied upon?
Confronted, it admits that its description of the item was nothing but a guess. An e-mail quotes its chief Civil War expert as saying, forthrightly:
“There doesn’t seem to be any documentation to back up the claim. It was probably based on the style of badge, style of lettering and engraving, general age of the badge, etc. I think the assumption is highly plausible, but it seems to be an assumption or educated guess and not something concrete.”
In a follow-up e-mail, a spokesman acknowledges that “there was no official press designation during the Civil War…, most of the correspondents either being well known or generally accepted at their word as to who they were and represented.” Rather than leaving it at that—which admits that the buyer got something other than what was represented—Heritage Auctions (perhaps on advice of counsel) produces further speculation: “that this badge was a privately made example from the Civil War era,” that is, “a one-off badge.”
That’s merely a guess, of course—and perhaps one not so “educated” as it is expedient.
Press badges appear to have originated in the East in the 1860s, worn not by journalists in war fields, but at crime scenes in large cities.
•An article in the New York Tribune on Dec 2, 1865, suggests that some reporters might have been wearing press badges then. The newspaper’s reporter having been denied admission to a divorce proceeding, the Tribune storms:
“A policeman, No. 563, hack inspector, of ‘beer-barrel’ build and fiery red completion, stood sentinel at one of the doors, and refused our reporter admission, this potent guardian of the temple of justice supposing that it was necessary for every member of the reportorial profession to wear a ‘badge.’ ”
•This notice appears in the May 7, 1868 edition of the Boston Traveler: “Reporters in favor of a ‘press badge’ are invited to meet in this office on Saturday, at 4:30 p.m.”
That newspaper advises on June 4, 1869:
“Several ambitious parties have been for several days engaged on a Press badge to be worn by the reporters, in order to distinguish them from the crowd, so that the police may recognize them as they go in and out of Press Headquarters. Some police regulations are necessary, as the number of spectators will crowd out many newspaper men [who]…should have good accommodations.”
•The June 17, 1869 issue of the Boston Post tells of a postbellum “Peace Jubilee” which attracted a crowd of 35,000 and was attended by President U.S. Grant. The account says:
“Among the lookers-on, taking a pen and ink sketch of Grant, was Miss Kate Field. She is very proud of being a reporter, and wears her press badge conspicuously pinned on her breast. She is dashing and vivacious, and dresses in the most approved style. Her natty little note-book is perpetually in her hand, and she is continually obeying Ned Cuttle’s instructions [in Dickens’ Dombey and Son]: ‘when found, make a note of.’ She bustles around everywhere and shakes her curls, sees everything and doesn’t care for anybody.”
(Field was also an actress and became a newspaper editor and lecturer.)
•The State Journal in Jefferson City, Mo. observes, on March 20, 1874:
“The reporters for the St. Louis newspaper press are soon to be decorated with badges. Let a Jeff. City reporter decorate with a badge and he would be shot on sight.”
•A Dec. 11, 1876 article in the Daily Graphic in New York City tells of a fire in a Brooklyn theater. It says that “[s]hortly after the labor was begun” in cleaning the rubble, “a press badge bearing a monogram of the New York fire department was found about midway of the vestibule. This it is believed is the badge worn by Stuart Hand, a reporter of the Commercial Advertiser whose body has not been identified.”
•A piece in the Sept. 23, 1889 issue of the Evening star in Washington, DC, summarizes a report by the district’s superintendent of police on operations for the fiscal year that ended June 30. This is quoted from the report:
“[A]pplication was made during the year by members of the press for badges which would make them known to the police as authorized representatives and entitle them to facilities for obtaining information upon subjects of interest to the public. The request was granted, and it is believed that it has not only been of benefit to those who wear the press insignia but also to the community at large in disseminating correct news of current events.”
While reporters’ badges were apparently unknown in Los Angeles when Bennett made his 1891 request, it appears that they were a familiar sight in San Francisco. There were presumably more reporters in that then-more populated city than here. (There were 298,997 denizens there, as of 1890, compared to 50,395 in Los Angeles.)
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The Jan. 27, 1893 issue of the San Francisco Call tells of a fresh design for badges issued by the Fire Department (pictured at right), explaining the need for a revamping in these words:
“There are a large number of reporters’ badges of the old style now out, and some of them are in the hands of persons who have either ceased to work as reporters or who never did work on a newspaper. The former carried their badges with them when they left newspaper work, while the latter secured badges by finding them or stealing them.
“From the fact that a reporter’s badge entitles the wearer to go anywhere inside the fire lines, dishonest men, who had found or stole a reporter’s badge, have used it to gain an entrance into burning houses where they pilfered to their hearts’ content unmolested, because not suspected. For this reason all the old badges have been called in, and after February 15 next the police will take any of the old badges they may see from the person wearing them, and if they think best will put such persons under surveillance until they can ascertain who and what they are.
“The newspapers will be required to take receipts from each reporter to whom one of the new badges is issued, and keep a list of the names for reference.”
By 1894, reporter’s badges had become commonplace in Los Angeles. There were, it would seem, at least 31 of them. In the May 4 issue of the Herald, and each day through May 11, there appears this classified ad:
“LOST—PRESUMABLY ON BROADWAY OR Third Street, Thursday night…a small pocketbook, containing $10 gold-piece and some silver, also press badge No. 31. Finder will leave at this office and receive reward.”
(The version in the Times says “badge No. 311” but that was no doubt a typo. There could not have been that many reporters in the city. Indeed, in 1930, 36 years later, when new police press badges were set to be issued, only 300 of them were cast. They weren’t issued, by the way, as explained below.)
On May 2, 1896, almost exactly two years after that first ad seeking the return of a press badge appeared, one was published in the Evening Express and the Times in quest of restoration to the owner of another such badge, this one bearing the number “33.” That ad was placed by “Mrs. Enderlein,” and it asks that the badge be brought to the office of the Express where the finder would receive a reward.
Ella H. Enderlein, a widow and socialite, was women’s editor of the Express.
The matter of press badges authorizing the holder to cross fire lines did not come up in Los Angeles until 1899—and only as an after-thought.
At the Nov. 1 meeting of the Fire Commission, Chief Walter S. Moore recommended that employees of power companies be furnished with special badges. The next morning’s Herald explains the reason: “to enter the fire lines in cases of emergency to remove gas and other meters and to care for expensive property of the lighting companies.”
The Times report that morning doesn’t mention the reason for such badges, but adds this information:
“It was suggested that a special press badge be designed that would give the same privilege to newspaper men. As it is now, many men pass themselves off for [reporters] who are not connected with any paper, and in this way gain admission inside the fire lines.”
The commissioners told Moore to present a proposed design for the badges.
A Nov. 9 report in the Times on the next Fire Commission meeting says that the chief wanted more time to come up with a design. The writer remarks:
“As long as there is no badge or other emblem to distinguish reporters from the rest of the crowd, the police and firemen have to [rely] on their personal knowledge of the men in admitting representatives of the press inside the lines. In New York and other large cities each paper has badges with the name of the journal engraved upon it, and these are always worn by the reporters. It is probable that a simple badge of admission will be adopted here, and the same emblem will be used also by the employees of the gas and electrical companies.”
A Dec 14 article in the Times quotes that the fire chief as saying, in his annual report:
“Police lines at fires are henceforth to be more rigidly enforced. Badges will be provided all those who have a right to be inside the lines, including newspaper men, insurance men, employees of the lighting companies, etc.”
Today’s press pass is issued by the LAPD and authorizes, as it long has, the passing of both police and fire lines.
A new-style police badge (Series 4) was introduced in 1913. If a photo of it and one of a reporter’s badge from the era were put side by side, they would appear to be the same except for the word “REPORTER” being emblazoned on the press badge. But there was another distinguishing feature, not apparent from a photo: the disparate dimensions of the badges.
The Feb. 27, 1922 issue of Two Bells, a publication of the employees of the Los Angeles Railway (which operated street cars), contains this “Notice to Conductors”:
“Some party is attempting to ride on a Police Reporter’s Badge. These badges are similar in shape to the regular Police Shield, but are much smaller in size and must not be accepted for transportation.”
(The prerogative of police officers and persons holding certain other city jobs to ride free on public transit vehicles will be the subject of a future column.)
Yet another new police badge (Series 5) was introduced in 1923. The police press badge (depicted in the last column) mimicked it, except that it bears the word “Reporter.”
Three hundred reporters’ badges in 1930 were cast from the same die as that used in manufacturing newly designed official police badges, again with “Reporter” stamped on them. But the shields, obtained from the low bidder, in Rochester, New York, were deemed too shoddy to be pinned on officers of the Los Angeles police force. A Dec. 9, 1930 report in the Times : “[B]ecause of the general dissatisfaction expressed over the quality of the badges, which cost only 37 cents each, indications are that they will not be issued and that the present badges may be used indefinitely.”
The end to the use of the 1923-style police badges, and the end of reporters’ press badges in the city, came in 1940. The City Council adopted an ordinance restricting issuance of new police badges to sworn officers. An article in the April 24 edition of the Times says:
“Mayor, Councilmen and commissioners, who in the past have had special badges similar in appearance to the police shield, hereafter will carry identification cards, as will retired officers and reporters.”
The police badge adopted in 1940 (Series 6), bearing an image of City Hall, became nationally recognizable in the early 1950s; it was there on the television screen every Thursday night when credits were rolled at the conclusion of episodes of NBC’s Dragnet (and, in syndication, Badge 714). The basic design is still in use.
Next: did a press badge confer tacit authorization to carry a concealed weapon?
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