EARLY MEMBERS OF THE
FORT WORTH POLICE DEPARTMENT
As with most people today, our ancestors did not see any of their actions or lives to be of historical importance-why would they this was normal life. But that is far from the truth, for everything we do or say throughout our life has historical value to someone: descendants, politics, laws and especially historians. The Fort Worth Police Department is no different and, therefore, many records and photographs have been destroyed because they didn't seem important. It wasn’t until 2004 that the Department even considered a historical value to the things it generates and stores. Because of this reason, the Historical Committee and Association was developed. With this we learned that people are important and should always be remembered, whether in a good or bad light.
Throughout the history of our department there has been a need for officers to be easily identifiable. In early years, the normal means of identification was a number placed on their badge of office. Each badge issued by the department would usually have a single or double digit number on the face. When the officer left the department, the badge was returned and reissued to a new officer. This has sometimes caused problems in the identification of officers, especially those above the rank of officer whose badge held their rank rather than a number.
It was not until 1951 when R.R. Howerton was appointed Chief that a permanent identification system was established that would be of historical value. Howerton gave each officer in the department an unique number, regardless of rank, we know as an ID number. If an officer leaves the department for whatever reason, the number is retired and cannot be reissued.
For Department historians this has been invaluable since now an officer can easily be remember throughout the years. However researching early officers has been more difficult for two reasons: there was no identification numbering system except during their employment and because officers moved in an out of the department many times on the whims of the city leaders. A quest to recover these individual’s names is in progress, but it’s a slow and tedious process. The following lists are arranged by year, and are compiled from rosters on file at the FW Public Library, various newspaper articles, folders, and other informational sources. None of the years listed on this roster are considered to be 100% accurate or complete since most of the original records of the department are no longer in existence. This will be an ever changing roster as research on the early department history continues. Some of the lists are verbatim from the records found at the Fort Worth Public Library in the Local History/Genealogy Section.
This working roster is continually updated by Sgt. Kevin Foster and retired Sgt. Dale Hinz. We hope you will enjoy the results and find them of value.
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