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HARRIS DALTON
Georgia’s First State Troopers
Patrolled the Highways All Alone
By Harris Dalton
My sister-in-law’s uncle was
one of Georgia’s first state patrolmen, and he told me
it was difficult to convince motorists back then that
anyone had the authority to tell them how to drive, and
they were vehemently opposed to being ticketed.
“You had to be prepared to fight
a traffic violator back then because
they had grown up believing the
roads and highways belonged to
them,” W. T. Beauchamp said while
recalling his early days on the force.
An article in the Oct. 4, 1936
Atlanta Constitution supports his
contention when a spectacular, yet
humorous, incident was reported
near Americus. The incident involved
three troopers who had been called to
investigate a wreck that involved 18 intoxicated men.
Driving one of the wrecked cars was a member of
the Georgia House of Representative who figured he
should not be questioned. Another carload of drunks
arrived on the scene and sided with the drunks in the
Representative’s car against the three troopers.
Words between the two factions became heated to
the point that a fistfight broke out and was described in
the Constitution thusly: “No guns were drawn and the
troopers remained on their feet during the fist-slinging
fray while several of the attackers hit the ground time
and time again.”
“And we were often out there
on our own,” Beauchamp recalls.
“No radio to call for backup, and
that was long before video cameras
recorded what actually happened.”
Yes, it was a time when violator
and pursuer were pitted against one
another, and often over dirt roads,
the lead car had a distinct advantage.
Sheriff Mac Abercrombie of
Douglas County remembered when
whiskey runners carried logs on the backs of their cars
and would push them off and drag them with a chain
when being pursued over winding dirt roads.
“It was impossible to see with the dust covering
your windshield,” Sheriff Abercrombie confessed.
To circumvent the problem of not having a two-way radio, the patrolmen made
agreements with stores
and service stations in
their territories to take
telephone messages from
headquarters.
“They would hang out
a flag if they had a message we needed to stop for,”
Beauchamp pointed out.
Seatbelts were
unknown at the time, and
one patrolman told me he
hooked his finger in the
lever that locked the vent
window of their cars to
prevent him from sliding
across the seat in tight
turns.
Besides the immediate
problem of auto deaths, the
automobile also brought
other problems. Those who
chose to engage in crime
no longer had to resort to
flight by horseback, and
this new and accessible
invention was a much
faster and more efficient
means of evading the law.
In addition, Georgia, which
is approximately 150 miles
wide and 200 miles long, is
broken into 159 counties.
The criminal or speeder,
like in the old western
movies, could “hightail it”
to the border, and unless
the sheriffs in adjoining
counties had good working
relations, the chase could
be ended in a few minutes.
The sheriff, the highest
law enforcement officer in
his county, needed support.
The problems which had
for decades belonged to the
metropolitan areas had now,
because of the increased
mobility, become the
problems of the entire state.
The situation demanded
change. The automobile,
along with the economic
conditions during the ‘30s
was, with other variables,
instrumental in the increase
of major crimes in this state between the years of 1925
and 1930.
The public demanded
something be done to stop
the rising crime and heavy
carnage on the highways,
and in 1936, Judge Clement
E. Sutton of Wilkes
County drafted a plan.
His plan was adopted by
the General Assembly on
March 19, 1937, creating
the Department of Public
Safety which provided
for a Georgia State Patrol
and Georgia Bureau of
Investigation. The basic
function of the GBI was
“…to render assistance to
municipal officers, sheriffs,
superior court judges and
prosecutors in the scientific
investigation of criminal
cases.” The assistance,
however, was to be rendered
only upon request of the
law enforcement official involved or by order of the
Governor.
From the beginning,
one of the most important
phases of GBI functions
was work in personal
identification. The file
began as a compilation
of fingerprints and other
data. This file consisted
of information on not
only criminals, but
also of information
on other citizens who
had volunteered to be
fingerprinted.
The agents worked
out of Atlanta until 1948
when they were assigned
districts throughout the
state. As the value of
scientific methods became
greater, the department
found it necessary to create
a subdivision of the GBI
which could handle more
specialized requirements.
This division was created in
the form of the Crime Lab.
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Harris Dalton is retired
after a career in journalism
and lives in Waleska, Ga.
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