Police criticized over ‘take-home’ cars, Gator Bowl parade route changed
Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century ago? It may have been a different era of history, culture and politics but there are often parallels between the kind of stories that made headlines then and today. As interesting as the similarities may be, so are the differences. These are some of the top stories from the week of Nov. 30-Dec. 6, 1959. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• It was reported that the City Police Department “could gain maximum effectiveness in its patrol strength, and save money too,” if it would do away with “private ownership” of police cruisers and assign them to a motor pool.
At the time 38 police cars, more than a third of the department’s inventory of 96 vehicles, were assigned to officers on a take-home basis. The cars were primarily used for transportation between home and work and while patrol cars were broken down due to poor maintenance, leaving large areas unprotected, the take-home cruisers were parked in police officers’ driveways.
The City paid all the operating expenses for the cars including fuel, oil and tires even while the vehicles were being used for personal business.
It was noted that some officers needed take-home cars due to their assignments. Detectives in auto theft and intelligence, for example, often worked on their own time after regularly-assigned hours and a car equipped with a radio was a necessity.
In addition to the sworn officers, other police department staff assigned take-home cruisers included the chaplain, the garage supervisor, the paint shop foreman, the director and assistant director of the Police Academy and an officer assigned to the bicycle shop.
The department’s maintenance records also “produced a tabloid of motorized deterioration.”
Unit No. 2372, a four-door, eight-cylinder car used to patrol Beat 42 Downtown was cited as a typical example of the life of a police car. It was purchased late in 1956 and assigned to Police Chief Luther Reynolds for his personal use. The car was driven only 126 miles before the first of 1957. At the end of October, 1959 the odometer registered 19,025 miles.
The vehicle’s original purchase price was $3,453, less $253 for a trade. Since it was purchased the department had spent $2,268.85 on maintenance and equipment. The car got about four miles per gallon of gasoline and in October was inoperative more than 14 days. The car’s top speed going down a steep hill was about 50 miles per hour but the driver couldn’t hold it on the road and it was noted the car’s brakes “probably couldn’t pass a normal inspection.”
• Jacksonville’s other police force (remember this was long before consolidated government) announced a contract to supply 36 new automobiles to the Duval County Patrol was awarded to American Auto Rentals, Inc. by the County Commission.
The company was the lowest of three bidders who submitted offers to supply the cars for a period of one year. The firm, headed by Byron Folmar, offered to supply the cars for $80 per month per vehicle plus 7.9 cents per mile.
Also accepted was a Lynch-Davidson Company bid of $1,931.37 for a new station wagon for the County Health Unit. State funds would be used to pay for the vehicle.
• A preliminary report on the nation’s crime for the first nine months of 1959 issued by the FBI indicated a substantial decrease in the number of reported crimes in Jacksonville as compared to the 1958 statistics.
That year, Jacksonville was topped only by Los Angeles, Miami and Phoenix, Ariz. in the number of reported crimes per 100,000 population. The local crime index figure was 2,004.4 crimes per 100,000.
The total reported crimes in the city limits up to Oct. 1 was 3,600 compared to 4,900 in the same period in 1958. The only crime category that showed an increase over the previous was that of murder and non-negligent manslaughter which rose from 20 to 23.
A sharp decrease was measured in burglaries and breaking and entering, which dropped from 2,499 to 1,490. Auto thefts also decreased from 646 to 624 and larcenies over $50 from 1,153 to 1,056.
• Mrs. Arthur W. Milam was named assistant chair of the Mother’s March for the 1960 March of Dimes.
F.J. O’Conner, March of Dimes director for Duval County, said Milam would assist Mrs. Leon Forbes, chair, in setting up the annual fundraising event scheduled for Jan. 28.
It was noted the March of Dimes financed research that led to the Salk anti-polio vaccine and would assist in the fight against two additional “cripplers” in 1960, arthritis and birth defects.
• Thursday, Ebbie Evelyn Bennett, 43, was freed of murder charges in the death of her 40-year-old husband who died of loss of blood from a knife cut in his thigh Sunday morning.
A coroner’s jury sitting before Justice of the Peace T.O. Holmes found that the husband, Ernest Eugene Bennett, a concrete finisher, died accidentally. The verdict was reached following testimony of witnesses questioned by State Attorney William E. Hallowes.
Evidence obtained by investigators indicated that Bennett had beaten and kicked his wife, thrown hot coffee on her and and lunged at her as she was picking up a paring knife from the kitchen floor.
In the kitchen, Mrs. Bennett had dropped the knife and a pie which she was cutting for herself and the couple’s two-year-old son, it was stated.
As she was picking up the knife, she said her husband lunged at her and the knife severed a main artery in his thigh. After being cut he went into the living room, sat in a chair and bled to death, according to testimony.
On seeing the great loss of blood, Mrs. Bennett called to neighbors for help. When police arrived Bennett was dead.
• The route of the annual Gator Bowl parade was changed based on a recommendation by the Police Department.
Bowl officials voted to set up the reviewing stand on the Laura Street side of Hemming Park (now Hemming Plaza) to start the parade further out Laura then have it proceed down Laura to Adams, west on Adams to Clay and north on Clay to the disbanding point.
In previous years the parade route had been pinched into a smaller area which, Police Captain C.L. Raines explained, had always caused a great deal of traffic congestion. Raines suggested the new route to ease the post-parade traffic problem. He also said parade floats should be parked along the Expressway near the Gator Bowl (now Municipal Stadium) while the football game was in progress Jan. 2 as another means of advertising the game.
Holding the parade the morning of the game was also a departure in tradition. It had usually been held the evening before the game.
The new Gator Bowl Queen, Flo Ann Milton, would share featured floats in the parade with Miss America of 1960, Lynda Lee Mead of the University of Mississippi. About 20 floats had been entered as of Dec. 1 and 15 marching bands were also expected to participate.
• November was a record-breaking month in a record-breaking year of bank clearings in Jacksonville according to figures released by O. Katherine Bell, secretary of the Jacksonville Clearing Association. Clearings for the month totaled $1,147,822,707.53 to show a gain of $111,514,015.80 over November, 1958.
Through the first 11 months of the year, clearings totaled $13,427,255,447.56, an increase of $1,650,761,120.06 compared to the same period in 1958.
• The value of new construction in Duval County as indicated by building permit applications during November was $5,021,359 according to figures released by County Engineer John Crosby.
Of the 527 permits issued, 406 represented new single-family dwellings valued at $2,454,875. The largest item in the total figure was a $1 million permit issued to Gulf Oil Corporation for the construction of a new oil storage facility on Heckscher Drive.