Police and fire in early Phoenix

Henry Garfias, the son of a Mexican general, was elected Phoenix's first town marshal in 1881. Already famous for apprehending the stagecoach "ghost bandit" as a county deputy, Garfias (above, courtesy of Duran Lugo) was said to have shot dead several outlaws as marshal and brought order to Washington Street's Whiskey Row (16 saloons and four dance halls). Thus was born the Phoenix Police Department.

The department operated out of the old City Hall until it received a more modern space in the City-County Building in 1929. Call boxes were used throughout the city for officers to check in. Phoenix equipped its squad cars with radios in 1932. You can learn more about PPD's history from the Phoenix Police Museum, located in the 1929 Police Headquarters at 17 S. Second Avenue. My new novel, City of Dark Corners, is set in the Depression-era department.

The Phoenix Fire Department came from passage of a bond issue in 1886 to establish a volunteer fire service with modern equipment and an improved water supply. Still, two hose companies (one Anglo, one Hispanic) competed until Frank Czarnowski joined them together as the Phoenix Volunteer Fire Department in 1888. By 1922, it was a paid, full-time department.

Here are some early photos (click for a larger image):

A Nott steam fire engine, one of Phoenix's first (City of Phoenix).

Horse-drawn apparatus at Fire Station No. 1, First and Jefferson streets, in 1908 (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Arrestees were taken to the cramped police headquarters at the old City Hall, shown in this 1912 postcard. Prisoners would be escorted to the town hall fountain and photographed as part of the booking process.

The catastrophic Hotel Adams fire on May 17, 1910. Two were killed and the Territorial governor left homeless. Phoenix firefighters put water on the Santa Fe Railway ticket office building across Center Street to keep the blaze from spreading.

A horse-drawn fire engine passes Adams School (later Grace Court School).

The Central Fire Station in 1905 at First Street and Jefferson. It was in the same block as City Hall then, and today's Fry's Grocery (Brad Hall collection).

The "new" Fire Station No. 1. in 1935. The tall building to the left is the back of the Fox Theater. Below are city fire marshals at shady City Hall  (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

A modern fire engine with uniformed personnel of the full-time professional fire department, 1939 (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Phoenix Fire Station No. 2, which stood from 1914 to 1948 at 902 E. Van Buren Street (Brad Hall collection).

Complete with a Dalmatian, here's the crew of the pumper at the Station Eight, Encanto Boulevard and Seventh Avenue in the 1940s. This was my fire station when I was growing up in today's Willo. It's still there, restored as a museum (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Station Eight in 1942.

Tower where firefighters practice, 1940 (Russell Lee/Library of Congress)

It's 1940 and Officer Charlie Thomas (white shirt) is directing traffic at Central and Adams, assisted by "Lefty" Mofford in uniform coat, a former professional baseball player. Thomas went on to become a reforming police chief. Lefty married future Gov. Rose Mofford (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Two Phoenix Police detectives discuss a case in the 1940s (Phoenix Police Museum).

An accident investigation unit is looked over by students at Grace Court School in the 1940s.

A group portrait of Phoenix Police on the steps of the 1929 City Hall in the early 1940s. Among the officers are David "Star" Johnson and Frenchy Navarre, whose deadly encounter would be one of the most notorious events in department history.

A group portrait of Phoenix PD in 1948, including detectives of the Hat Squad (McCulloch Brothers Collection/ASU Archives).

State troopers outside the Arizona Highway Patrol building at 1739 W. Jackson in 1945 (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

A highway patrolman and his cruiser in the same year (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Fire Station No. Four in 1951, located at First Street and Moreland. The design was widely used for PFD stations of the era and this building still stood as of 2021, although Station Four itself relocated to Third Avenue and McDowell.

Phoenix Fire Ladder 10 (later 24) in the 1950s. It was based at Thomas and 27th Avenue.

The first sworn female police officers joined the PPD in 1957 (Phoenix Police Museum).

It's 1960 and Phoenix Police detectives have found more than a thousand dollars from a robbery of Durant's restaurant (Phoenix Police Museum). Three armed bandits in Halloween masks hit the restaurant just after closing time on October 24th, taking $6,449 in cash and checks. Six employees were herded into a walk-in ice box and the bandits escaped.

Phoenix Police cruisers in 1961.

Long-serving Maricopa County Sheriff Luther "Cal" Boies outside the City-County Building in 1967. Boies served from 1946 to 1969.

A Phoenix Police helicopter flies over Central Avenue in the 1990s (Phoenix Police Museum).

One for Cal: PPD officer and cruiser in the 1970s. In summer, the uniform was a light blue shirt. For a time, all uniformed cops wore helmets. The cars were two-tone sand colored. Note the old-fashioned Phoenix bird on the door, as opposed to today's "Joe Cool" Phoenix bird.

Below, thanks to the Phoenix Police Museum, historic prowl cars checked out for wedding receptions:

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My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.

Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.