City in Sound; "OP" Task Force

This is Jack Angel with City in Sound. These are stories out of Chicago, city of all things. Some of them, the special business of the police. We're standing here at the police ramp at Los Allen, Kinsey, and the forest goes one of the most amazing sights we've seen, 75 motorcycle of this police task force moving out to a site, but tonight. And here they come. The 75 motorcycles of the special police task force head out each night for trouble. But the story here is that they head in different directions. The task force is a police district on wheels, moving night by night to the separate needs of the city, in the particular

places where the need may be the greatest. Within a few moments the whole task force can and has moved from one end of the city to the other. It's the first such force in the nation has been studied and copied by police departments in other cities. On the record, the unit is known as the OP task force, all for O 'Connor, the police commissioner. P for failing, the deputy in administrative charge. But it is best known as Ryan's Raiders after its operating director, Captain Robert Ryan. Well, now we've heard of Pickett's cavalry and Patton's armor. Now we have Ryan's Raiders right here in Chicago. With me is Captain Robert Ryan, who organized and was first supervisor of Ryan's Raiders, the police task force unit. Would you tell us a little bit about it, sir? Well, we were organized in March 22, 1956. The commissioner and the first deputy, Kieran Fallon.

They were thinking of creating a force to combat the crime, which was prevailing at that particular time in different areas. And thought came of organizing a force of men, both on foot at that time and on motorcycles. And they would strike in any given territory where the crime rate might be considered a little bit high. Completely mobile. Completely mobile. And at the time of the beginning at first, we did have some footmen and they were assigned to fixed areas on corners of the different sections and stopping people. And where there was traffic violations, you know, legally, we are in, where there is a traffic violation, and legally we do proceed. And with the legal search, Jack, it's been amazing what we have found after a search of these cars. Part of your job is to stop these cars in the right district and come through. And we are on alert all the time with the radio course communications of the crimes that have been committed in other

parts of the city and where the descriptions are, such in our manner constantly on alert looking for these persons that have committed crimes. Well, this points up the automobile as a factor in crime, and you have already met the wheel with the wheel here. We did, yes. I just walked past a couple of companies here, man, here. How do they get assignments? How do they know where to go each night? Well, we don't have any set pattern. And as far as our group, would you say, Jack, is a surprise movement. We do not, wherever we have a factor, of course, the picture each night may change. The commissioner may have some thing that he wishes us to fulfill. And he'll give us an assignment and say, go here tonight. And the deputy commissioner may have something that may arise during the day and we'll be in there in the evening. We have to say that these men don't actually know where they're going until they come in. Sometimes that I would have my mind made up and the commissioner would change it and say, go here. All right. Suppose you have a bunch of men out in five, say, and you get a call from 16. Can you move these men? I can move them moment to second. This by radio communication and move them out as many men as I

needed. We have actually enforced right now on the street in the particular on the working day with the 40 -hour week. We have 90 to 100 men always at our back and call. How does this work out? Well, to say that I might be a little bit more so because I'm partly responsible for the success of the unit, and I say it's phenomenal. I think as agreed, the commissioner has been an organization over two years, and that's not any temporary deal. It's been here since March 26th, 1956, and I believe it's going to be here permanently. It's been proven since the success that many other cities throughout the United States have asked us how we have worked and what the success we have attained. We have attained great success. I heard there were fellows from Los Angeles in the study. There were men from other cities too. I only have this own dragnet someday. Well, we won't solve crimes in the three minutes on the day of end either. That's right. This is the first city.

Is the first city in the United States that ever tried such a thing as this here? And it has been, as I say repeating again, it has been a wonderful success. Well, that's the most impressive record. Let's take a look at it as we go through the organization. Fine, sir. Fine. All right, man, attention to roll call. A man we're going into a fifth and sixth history tonight. And we have a condition out there. There's some cab drivers being held up. And you know how they operate. Those cab drivers stick up, men. They just win and hit and miss. And they're only a small stick. I was about to put their constant. Now, get in there and pay attention to those cab drivers. Do you see any suspicious persons in that cabs are looked suspicious? Stop them. Find out who they are. There's too many of them getting held up out. And stop them. Also look for these streetcar terminals. That is the end of the streetcar lines where those buses do park, especially after dark. Those conductors are a motorman on those streetcars. Bus drivers have a few dollars in their pockets. And they're very susceptible to being

stuck up. They don't only get a few dollars, but they're nasty. And watch those terminals. Feed car terminals out there. Stop some of those stick ups. Now another thing that has been stressed here lately, and you've been told about it, is that you fellas are expected. And all the other fellas assigned to three. We were expected to get into the side streets. Now, do not make a habit of riding the main streets. They're well -lipped. The mayor has done a good job of lighting up the streets. And you men are expected to get into the side streets. Let the people see you on the side streets. There's many things happening on the side streets that the public would welcome to seeing a police officer in there. Now get in there, fellas. And make it your business to ride down those side streets. Find out what's going on down there. Here's an example. There's 50 -35 elements off the beaten path. But get in there. They're holding people up in there. Now that's all, men. Get out there tonight. You're going out to five and six. You know you're supposed to get out there and do a good job. That's all. All right. We're rolling here in one of the task force squad units.

I don't know. Fifth district going over to sixth on a call. Actually, most of the task force uses motorcycles, three wheelers. It's one of the squad cars. And kind of a call, did you say this was, Sergeant? This is a call of a man with a gun in the sixth district. It's been brought in by two of the motorcycle police officers. Yeah. Man with a gun in six, brought in by two of the motorcycle units. We'll be there in just a moment. 138 -138 -1318 -Home. 1318 -Home and you got a 10 -55 -138. I had a couple of others over there. Pardon me? Say they're a Frank and Reardon. Yeah, they're going down there now. We've got the same call. Just gun cases in six. Most of these gun cases. You mean if we handle? Yeah. Well, I'd say we, uh, 7 out of 10 are gun cases. And you have the figure of our county cases and so forth. 7 out of 10 are guns.

Figure every time you get one of those, you get a potential, huh? Yeah, we save the life. That's right. They got carrying it. We seem to think that they're going to use it. We're going off a lot of those gun cases turned up on an annual report. Well, we have over the annual report. Now it was a thousand, seven hundred and twenty -two, I believe. We're going to test for us. Uh -huh. To test this for this unit, huh? This is for this unit, that's all you know. Where they get these guns? Well, uh, most of the answers are that they bought them from an unknown man, uh, for fifteen or twenty dollars. And then, uh, another, uh, answer is that they brought them here from, uh, some other states, uh, usually in the South. Mississippi or, uh, something like that. Or they wanted the crack grain. They loaned the man money on it. Taking it took it in pawn is another excuse. Yeah. And the excuse for carrying it is nine out of ten times is, uh, I'm carrying it for self -protection and protect myself.

Your home, twenty -one, I'll be twenty -two and twenty -two, twenty -two and twenty -two. It's a lie twenty -second. And then, you say you worked as, uh, as a porter and a grill. Is that correct? Yes. And where did you get this gun? I got it, fifty -first. Who did you buy it from? I was going down fifty -first. Do you know this man? I've seen him. Do you know him by name? No, sir. I don't even hang around with fifty -first. And how much money did you pay him for? Ten dollars. And why did you buy the gun? I bought it to go in the half of the gun. Just to have it. Just to have, I haven't gotten a lot. I haven't gotten a reason to stay up and no bad. I got a truck. Were you ever arrested for robbery? When I was sixteen, I was for an attempt. That's five years ago? Yeah. That was five years ago. Before I was sixteen, I was when I was fifteen. Well, about five years ago, it was five years ago that you were arrested. Yes. July 14th, 1953? Yes. And that was for robbery? No, sir. It was not for more robbery. Wasn't that

what you were charged with, robbery? I was not. For a attempt, robbery? Yes. And I did not have a gun. And now you tell me that you bought this gun two days ago for ten dollars. Yes. A day before yesterday. Yes. For ten dollars, just to have it. Yes. But you have it worth three weeks. I don't move in this room. And that you bought the gun just to have it? Yes. For your own protection? Yes. You bought it? Do you think that you need to carry a gun through your own protection? Right. But we ain't anybody need to carry something. Have you ever been held up? Have you ever been held up? Yes. Have you ever been held up twice? Twice. Yes. And once you attempted to hold someone up? No. When I was fifteen, when I was sixteen. Have you ever owned a gun before? No. It's not. It's never only in a Swiss bay pocket. Why do you carry that? I don't know. I don't know. No protection, but I guess you know that it's against a lot of carry. You know that if you're arresting a gun, what the penalty will be? I don't know what the penalty is, but I don't know what the penalty is. But you know

that there is a penalty. Do you know that it could be up to a year in the county jail? No. I didn't even know that he cared. I mean, I think I can. Otherwise, the possibility. What's the reason you do overnight, Emmett? Well, we don't know. It's hard to say. We're on the street as much as possible, except when there's a case brought into the station, and we go in and handle the case. So if we get three or four, five cases a night, we don't get much time for the street. We're in there more or less of the paperwork. Well, not coming. We got so many motorcycles, and we're in one of the few squads you got, I guess. We have two squads detectives on the street, and the rest are all motorcycles. We have some... We have sirens writing and squad cars also, providing sirens. We have one siren for approximately every ten minutes. You think the motorcycles can get in quicker

and not quicker? Founders that they can get in and out quicker. It's easier to saturate a certain district with motorcycles and it is with cars. Well, actually, you spent a lot of time down here, I don't want to do this particular neighborhood. We're out here approximately two or three times a week. On the south side. How long does it take you to move with you to get an order to get out into the other district? Well, that's all right. I just heard a call there for one of our wheels. Well, we can move to any district in the city within 20 to 25 minutes. I say 20 to 25 minutes, I mean, that's the opposite of the city. Joining district will just take us a few minutes to

move in. Just pick up the whole department and go, huh? Well, we just put a call on the radio and everybody in the attention of the test for its motorcycle. They move right now. If there's somebody trying to call us now, we can hear just a call here on the radio. Where are that? 48 state, Joe. 48 Michigan, they want a wagon there. They're just going to take it a second. He was at light a lot. Yes, we do. When we're going into a call, we're going for a wagon. We know it's one of our men. Yeah. 48 Michigan? Yeah. You got no sirens anymore, huh? Oh, yeah. I guess I acted on bad information. I'm going to take you a bus. I'm going to take you a bus.

You saw it right there? It was on, right? I want you to swim or will take a minibus? We're here not 48th and state with the task force unit. There's a lady who's lying in the street here. We'll see if we can find out what happened. Quite a traffic, anything to gather? There are a lot of four task force units here. Four motorcycles. Let's see. Come on in. Can you stand up for a 20 minutes?

Can you stand? You think you've been doing a lot of drinking tonight, right? Four or seven. You're even doing some drinking? Lots of drinking. Lots of drinking tonight, huh? Okay, the officer's going to take their way and now, okay. No way, right? Four. All right, all right. We'll take it. Let's take this off. What's your hairdo? What? What's your hairdo? Come on, let's take it home. I don't smoke. Come on. Hey, Emma, I thought maybe somebody slugged her there, but no, no, I think she's just thrown it. Yeah. What do you have? Four motorcycles and a squad and a squad roll here in about five minutes. What the reason for that is that they call for the task force wagon and not knowing just exactly what it is all of the units responded to the calls, see? Excuse me, Joe, I didn't hear you. Let's say you're on these here calls

now that we get, you never know what it is. These placement calls you live for a wagon or call for a sergeant to meet them. You never know what you're going to go into. That's why it's all so advisable to get there as soon as you can. Say somebody lie out of the street telling you what it is. You never know. Do you know why you were arrested? Yes. Why are you arrested? Because I was caught with those reefers and the lights and the plates and the clairs. Now you say you were caught with the reefers. Now what do you mean by the reefers? These things? Yeah. Well, these things here are you pointing to these marijuana cigarettes? The reef is what I call. Well, you know they're marijuana. I mean, that's the junky name for marijuana reefers. Is that right? Well, I know the reefers. Yeah. And you smoke them. Is that right? I smoke them sometimes. I see. And where did you buy these so -called reefers? Forty -seven South Parts. Earlier tonight? About seven. About seven thirty.

How much did you pay for them? Fifty cents a piece. And you bought three. Did you say you smoked one or two a week? Is that right? No, I don't. Well, how many would you say you smoked? I don't like to be a month before I smoke again. Well, if you can stay away from smoking marijuana for a month, why do you start again after a month is your abs? Well, it's just like I have it. Just like something else you would pick up for the wrong. Well, that isn't much of a habit if you only have one once a month. Yeah. Well, for my experience, I don't think you're, I think you smoke more than one a month. No, well, I don't. Well, that's what we think and that's what we're going to make an investigation. Now, you're going to cooperate with the police and go out and make a buy for us and so we can get the man responsible for selling these marijuana cigarettes. Now, why were you arrested originally? Why were you stopped originally in the street by the police? Tonight? Tonight. Because you couldn't see the license plate plate and I didn't turn my signal light on in time to another word you turned. There was a traffic violation and the traffic violation

led to the discovery of the marijuana cigarettes. Is that right? My signal light on, my turn signal light on. After I got to the stop, and they said that was wrong and they kind of all the things. Well, what I'm trying to say is the police stopped you for a purpose. That was a traffic violation. Yeah, he stopped me for a traffic violation. And then the subsequent search of the car revealed the marijuana cigarettes. They found the marijuana cigarettes. Yeah. So, and these capsules. Yeah, they got those out the glove on. Now, can we move your hand please? Do you have your, when you show me not right in the hand where you had these marijuana cigarettes? Well, I had them in the bathroom inside my in the band inside of your head. And the officer searched you and found his, he searched me fine. Lieutenant James Rareton is one of the unit commanders on the task force here. We found him in six district headquarters here and I just like to ask him a little bit about the operation of this unit.

Lieutenant, you have a very impressive statistical report on the work of this unit about the number of guns that you've taken and confiscated and the number of violent crimes that you've either prevented or for more or less cleaned up and in short order. Do you think this is the answer for a modern day police force? Well, I think there was a definite answer to a police force, especially one of the city this size where you cannot concentrate a definite number of police men in a certain area without depriving some other area of some place. Here you have the opportunity of moving a good number of police men into an area for the time that they're required. Of course, we've been all over the district area just rather briefly and we've seen a tremendous amount of movement. Three wheelers mostly a course on the move and two and three and even four at time moving into any given call. This is

common practice, is it? Well, the men are assigned two to a post and they travel their post in pairs and naturally the posts are small because of the number of men and the posts do interlock so that if a call comes in on one team's posts, the team on the adjoining post, if they're in there, will come in and respond to that call also. Men find this kind of interesting and exciting. Yes, they do. They seem to like this duty, they like the activity. Thank you very much, Lieutenant Erdogan, and welcome to us. The task force is good fast duty. A big city frontier for adventure. In turn, a frontier for big city police work in the making, probably the shape of the future. For the law must move as fast as those who strike against it. Wheel for wheel. Turn for turn. Speed for speed. And that

is why the OP task force comes along so quickly. This is Jack Angel with George Wilson, an engineer whose recordings here have imprinted city in sound.