Law Enforcement in Yakima has come a long way since its beginning back in 1886.

Before the turn of the century "law enforcement" meant a single town marshal who performed a variety of official duties other than enforcement of the law.

The Yakima city council meeting held Feb 18, 1886 decided they needed a Marshal. The job would pay 67.50 a month. The Marshal’s first official task was to repair the city’s irrigation ditches. Five days later the council appointed their first Marshal.

By the end of April, the Marshal had fixed the irrigation ditches and planted 530 trees. The Marshal had also appointed his first Deputy. (The Deputy wasn’t paid.) By the month of May, the Marshal had found someone to tend to the city’s outhouses.

The council decided to hold an election for the position of Town Marshal. Three men ran for the Marshal’s position which included the appointed Marshal.

On June 7^th the city chose J.P. McCafferty as its first elected Marshal.

By 1909 the police force had grown to 20 officers, which included the police chief. The city council ordered a general cleanup of all undesirables. They were told to catch the first train or join the city’s chain gang. For several years the city made numerous attempts to cleanup the city and remove the undesirables.

On April 18^th 1932 The City appointed Harold Robinson as the Police Chief. Chief Robinson said that he would take the job on one condition. That he be given complete control over the Police dept. Before Robinson took over, politics in the city government had played heavily in operation of the dept.

Robinson established training programs for the officers. Civil service was established to replace political appointments. By 1933 Robinson’s force was able to virtually stamp out bootlegging. Bawdy houses, narcotic dens and Chinese lottery houses were closed. Mid 1930s Robinson began putting radios in the police cars. Before the radios the city used signal lights to tell officers to contact the police dept. The officer would then walk to the nearest call box to contact the dept. The call boxes and signal lights were used for several years. The radios didn’t work very well and many officers continued to walk the beat.

1953 the Yakima Police dept grew to 65 police officers. The present number of police positions is 115.

The officers of today are equipped about the same as in the past. The training has changed significantly. The cars have changed a lot. There are lap top computers in the cars. Vehicle tracking (for officer safety). The radios work about the same. (Just kidding) The officers can now carry portable radios, which weigh less then the first boat anchor portables.