Just because it’s on a badge doesn’t mean it’s true

Great news, taxpayers!

The Spokane Police Department has spent about $11,000 of your money to overlook the historical significance of Eugene B. Hyde.

Never heard of him? Me neither.

But Mr. Hyde, as I have recently learned, is the frontier lawman whose appointment to city marshal established Spokane’s very first police department.

That happened in 1881, when the city (then Spokane Falls) was incorporated by decree of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Washington. By statute, a city had to have a marshal to enforce the peace, attend city council meetings and “appoint deputies as he shall see fit.”

Unfortunately, the some 300 spiffy new police badges the department bought to replace its worn-out shields do not reflect Marshal Hyde’s reign. The badges bear the inscription: “Spokane Police Department, Founded 1884.”

Not true, say fact-conscious members of the Spokane Police Department History Book Committee. The volunteer group is putting together a decade-by-decade history of Spokane law enforcement.

The working title: “Spokane’s Police Department, 1881–2006, A Tribute to the City.”

The committee plans to publish it in 2006. Based on the 1881 date, that will be the department’s 125th anniversary.

“I don’t know where they got that,” said committee member Nancy Compau of the 1884 badge date. “It’s hilarious although I’m not sure they think that.”

Compau is the former head of the Spokane Public Library’s Northwest History Room. She’s the gold standard when it comes to nailing down regional dates, details and developments.

And she’s not the committee’s only authority on local lore.

Tony Bamonte is handling the writing/publishing end of the book as well as a chunk of the research. He and his wife, Suzanne, are insatiable hounds for history. Together they have published popular books on The Davenport Hotel, Miss Spokane and Manito Park, to name a few.

One of Bamonte’s first orders of business upon joining the committee was to correct the erroneous dates that had been floating around concerning SPD origins. One mistake-filled police history published in 1979, for example, cites 1879 as the department’s beginning. That’s impossible since the city wasn’t incorporated.

Bamonte – a former Spokane police officer and Pend Oreille County sheriff – researched the department’s roots as if he were investigating a homicide.

The eight-part “chronology of evidence” he assembled is waaaay too sleep-inducing to inflict on you, my beloved and faithful readers. But trust me: The source evidence points to 1881 as the real deal.

Tell it to Jim Nicks. The SPD’s deputy chief met with the committee. He looked at Bamonte’s research. He and the rest of the brass went with the 1884 date anyway when ordering the badges, which arrived last year.

“Arguments can be made for 1881, 1884, 1885, or as late as 1890 – it all depends on which of the documents you choose for your argument,” wrote Nicks in a Police Department Newsletter. “An administrative decision was made to stay with 1884, as that has been our tradition and understanding of when the department began to move towards a multi-member ‘police force.’ “

When contacted Wednesday, Nicks hadn’t changed his mind.

“I think it’s more important to some people than others,” he said of the hubbub. “Everybody has an opinion.”

Opinion?

What does opinion have to do with historical truth?

For those who can’t get enough of this stuff, the first elected city marshal was James Glispin, a former Minnesota sheriff who helped nail the nefarious Younger brothers’ gang. He became our top cop in 1885.

To the rest of you, squabbling over dates is a tempest in a time capsule.

But think of it this way: What if some nitwit started calling our world’s fair Expo ‘78? Heresy, you say?

Better yet, what if some fuzzy mathematician in the city’s personnel department arbitrarily adds three years to the date when Nicks joined the force? You think he won’t blow steam to find out he must endure wisenheimers like me for another three years before retiring with peace and a pension?

Nicks should take note of what G.K. Chesterton once observed:

“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present.”