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Life Behind the Badge:
The Spokane Police Department's Founding Years, 1881-1903 by Tony and Suzanne Bamonte with the Spokane Police Department History Book Committee Hardcover (8 1/2" x 11"), 175 pages, 176 photo illustrations,index, and bibliography ISBN: 978-0-9740881-9-8 |
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Sorry, this title is no longer available through Tornado Creek Publications. Copies can be purchased from the Spokane Regional Law Enforcement Museum at https://www.srlem.org/shop
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As a young frontier town in the late 1800s, Spokane struggled to develop a respectable image amidst the rampant influence of alcohol, gambling, prostitution and corrupt politics in an era when money flowed freely. The fledgling Spokane Police Department was faced with the multifarious challenges of bringing law and order into the community. This book is a study of the best and the worst the police department and the city had to offer from 1881 to 1903. The city's growth and evolution is mirrored in the history of the police department. This account of Spokane's early history offers a unique perspective, focusing on its darker, shadowy side and the Spokane Police Department's response.
Life Behind the Badge is not a typical one-sided exaltation of a police department written with condescension toward the public. It is about real cops coming together in all their strengths and weaknesses to enforce or ignore the laws of the times. It is a real history that tells the whole story. There were good and bad cops walking their beats before the Miranda decision. This is a study of a time when the vagueness of laws often breached the constitution and, not unlike today, the wealthy and powerful were frequently off-limits or immune to the law. Most importantly, it is a study of the best and the worst our police department and community had to offer from 1881 to 1903.
This was an era when capital punishment by hanging was carried out at a local level by the county sheriff (Spokane witnessed three official hangings), when Calamity Jane had a gambling hall in Spokane and Wyatt Earp and his brothers, who operated a saloon in North Idaho, were a familiar sight around the area. Prostitutes openly plied their trade while the Chinese patronized their fellow countrymen's opium dens in the heart of downtown Spokane. But, as wealth from the nearby mining districts began to transform Spokane into a thriving metropolis, conflicts erupted between those desirous of building a respectable family town and the hoards of single men who worked in the mining and timber industries who wanted the entertaining nightlife. This book provides brief biographies of some of Spokane's finest early-day police officers, including Police Chief James Glispin who, before moving to Spokane, led the posse in Minnesota that captured the Younger brothers of the James-Younger gang. Richly illustrated with scenes from Spokane's early days and photographs of its fledgling police department, this book transports the reader back to frontier days in the Inland Northwest.
"Life Behind the Badge" endorsements
Once again Tony and Suzanne Bamonte, in conjunction with the Spokane Police Department History Book Committee, have produced a book that illuminates an important aspect of Spokane history. This meticulously researched volume covers the formative years of the Spokane Police Department. During this period, Spokane was both a wide-open frontier town, in which alcohol, prostitution and gambling held sway, and a genteel young city making the most of its newfound mining wealth. The book reveals in fascinating detail a police department finding its crucial role in bringing law and order into this mix. Of special interest are the life stories of all the early police chiefs and their struggles to confront not only the usual lawbreakers of the time, but city officials who would exert undue political influence on the department.
Laura Arksey, Northwest history researcher and writer
Retired archive librarian, Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture
This is a meticulously researched work which draws from excellent primary sources. At the Eastern Region Branch archives, as well as elsewhere I have no doubt, the researchers utilized in-depth methods which often turned up key pieces of evidence buried in records which seemed, at first, to be unlikely to yield much topical information. In a number of cases, the authors have been able to correct the widely accepted, but mistaken, version of events, thus contributing significantly to historical accuracy. The illustrations and photographs are superb, and the sidebars are very informative. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in Spokane history, the history of the West or the history of law enforcement. The book provides a clear window with a superb view into the way in which frontier towns developed and the way in which crime and law enforcement developed along with them.
Lee Pierce, MA, Assistant Archivist,
Washington State Archives Eastern Regional Branch
Life Behind the Badge is not a typical one-sided exaltation of a police department written with condescension toward the public. It is about real cops coming together in all their strengths and weaknesses to enforce or ignore the laws of the times. It is a real history that tells the whole story. There were good and bad cops walking their beats before the Miranda decision. This is a study of a time when the vagueness of laws often breached the constitution and, not unlike today, the wealthy and powerful were frequently off-limits or immune to the law. Most importantly, it is a study of the best and the worst our police department and community had to offer from 1881 to 1903.
This was an era when capital punishment by hanging was carried out at a local level by the county sheriff (Spokane witnessed three official hangings), when Calamity Jane had a gambling hall in Spokane and Wyatt Earp and his brothers, who operated a saloon in North Idaho, were a familiar sight around the area. Prostitutes openly plied their trade while the Chinese patronized their fellow countrymen's opium dens in the heart of downtown Spokane. But, as wealth from the nearby mining districts began to transform Spokane into a thriving metropolis, conflicts erupted between those desirous of building a respectable family town and the hoards of single men who worked in the mining and timber industries who wanted the entertaining nightlife. This book provides brief biographies of some of Spokane's finest early-day police officers, including Police Chief James Glispin who, before moving to Spokane, led the posse in Minnesota that captured the Younger brothers of the James-Younger gang. Richly illustrated with scenes from Spokane's early days and photographs of its fledgling police department, this book transports the reader back to frontier days in the Inland Northwest.
"Life Behind the Badge" endorsements
Once again Tony and Suzanne Bamonte, in conjunction with the Spokane Police Department History Book Committee, have produced a book that illuminates an important aspect of Spokane history. This meticulously researched volume covers the formative years of the Spokane Police Department. During this period, Spokane was both a wide-open frontier town, in which alcohol, prostitution and gambling held sway, and a genteel young city making the most of its newfound mining wealth. The book reveals in fascinating detail a police department finding its crucial role in bringing law and order into this mix. Of special interest are the life stories of all the early police chiefs and their struggles to confront not only the usual lawbreakers of the time, but city officials who would exert undue political influence on the department.
Laura Arksey, Northwest history researcher and writer
Retired archive librarian, Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture
This is a meticulously researched work which draws from excellent primary sources. At the Eastern Region Branch archives, as well as elsewhere I have no doubt, the researchers utilized in-depth methods which often turned up key pieces of evidence buried in records which seemed, at first, to be unlikely to yield much topical information. In a number of cases, the authors have been able to correct the widely accepted, but mistaken, version of events, thus contributing significantly to historical accuracy. The illustrations and photographs are superb, and the sidebars are very informative. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in Spokane history, the history of the West or the history of law enforcement. The book provides a clear window with a superb view into the way in which frontier towns developed and the way in which crime and law enforcement developed along with them.
Lee Pierce, MA, Assistant Archivist,
Washington State Archives Eastern Regional Branch