From Drunken Drivers to Prostitutes and Shoplifters: The Onset of the Great Depression and Shifting Police Priorities in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1928-1934

Afflicted with a blunt headache, clouded memory, and a stiff back from a night spent in police custody, a bright bulb sparked in the eyes of a man arrested for drunken driving, cruelly reminding him of his recent indiscretion.He ascended the stairs, no doubt aiding by an officer or two, from one of the two cells located in the basement of the four-storied police headquarters.As a crowning glory of administration success, the headquarters was built in 1892, on Crescent at Ottawa in the Northwest side of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.It was the eighteenth of November, 1928, a Sunday, the morning after a Saturday night/early Sunday morning arrest in which he made the cut as one of the most dangerous catches from the three precincts, someone that needed to be booked and recorded for the sake of posterity.A middle-aged and slightly plump, white man peers back from the shot, clad in a rumpled suit, a mussed collar and his tie askew.His tensed jaw and apprehension conspicuously stared past the camera.The picture was taken, developed on site, and carefully pasted into a large sixteen by sixteen inch mug book, tautly bound by two, hefty iron bolts.The clerk or officer with exacting handwriting recorded the offender's name, the date of arrest, offense, age, their basic physical characteristics, marital status, birthplace, descent, arresting officer, their residence, and any identifying scars or markings.A small space remained for their still to be determined sentence. 1 But the story does not end here.This would be a rather mundane tale if this experience was this man's alone, but for our purposes it is not.On the night he was arrested, two men joined him, both charged with the same offense.In the previous three weeks the Grand Rapids Police Department arrested and booked fifteen men, thirteen of them for drunken driving.The next three weeks would look largely the same.1928 ended with another trio of men booked on the thirtieth of December, and the New Year was ushered in with another drunken driving arrest,

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