June 3, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
August Vollmer believed education is the key to good policing. Credit...Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images
By Annalee Newitz
Mx. Newitz is the author of âFour Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age.â
August Vollmer has been hailed by many in law enforcement as the father of modern American policing. He has also been criticized for pioneering the militarization of the police and espousing the racist theories of eugenics. Whatâs rarely talked about, however, is that he began his tenure as the head of the police department of Berkeley, Calif., in 1905 by forcing all of his deputies to resign â arguably a kind of early experiment in abolishing the police. He eventually replaced them with college-educated people, hoping they would usher in a new, progressive era in policing.