Calls Keep Deputies on the Jump

The Newhall Signal and Saugus Enterprise
F.W. Trueblood, Publisher

Thursday, August 18, 1938

C

alling all cars!
    Somebody has stolen a ukulele from the auto of a Los Angeles young lady. A roadside filling station reports the loss of a water hose. A truckload of hay is missing from a Saugus haystack. A young man is wandering around in San Francisquito canyon as if he had lost his wits. A bus driver wants the sheriff's office to return a lady passenger to a station at which she wanted to get off and didn't. A patient has broken out of quarantine at the sanitarium. A mean stray dog is prowling in a neighborhood. A dipsomaniac is trying to break into a beauty parlor. Watch for a certain car on the Weldon Canyon road and notify the driver that his father has just died.
    A crime wave in Soledad township? No, just a few items from an average day's entries in the log book at the Newhall sheriff station, where the deputies of Sheriff Gene Biscailuz put in 24 hours a day looking after the troubles of their district.
    A prowl car with two radio patrolmen is constantly on the move through the area. An ear is constantly at the phone to catch a summons for help of investigation. The law never sleeps in Soledad.

Work covers wide field
    Few people have any idea of the variety and extent of the details which the thirteen men attached to the local station care for as a matter of routine. The largest part of the cases handled never result in an arrest or an appearance in court, but are adjusted quietly without arrests or court appearances.
    "We want people to report to us when they see anything that seems wrong, or suspicious," Captain Marty declares. "Give us the details no matter how small. Crime is like fire. If you attend to it promptly it can be stopped. We want people to feel that we are here to help and protect them."
    Two radio cars are maintained at the station and one is always on the move. A big teletype machine brings in reports from headquarters and the far flung stations of the county, and two trunk telephone lines handle other calls. In addition to their other duties the sheriff's men cooperate and support the officers of the California Highway Patrol. The territory of the Newhall division runs from the Los Angeles city limits below the tunnel to the Kern county line, and includes Acton Junction, all of the old and new Ridge routes, the Santa Susana pass and Kagel Canyon, a total area of about 400 square miles.

Personnel of station
    Three crews of two radio patrolmen each give 24 hour service. At the station Captain Marty is in command during the day and Sergeants W.C. Hutchison and C.H. Kinsey keep vigil from 4 P.M. to 8 A.M. The radio patrolmen are B.F. Summers, F.P. Thompson, Paul Dotson, H.A. Waldrip, C.J. Pember and J.H. Lockey, with F.R. Fitzimmons and Roland McIntyre as relief men. Jack Story is investigator and looks after the sleuthing. K.G. Hansen is secretary in charge of records and reports. L.G. Allen is vacation relief man.
    The sheriff's office concerns itself exclusively with criminal work and has nothing to do with civil matters. Suspects charged with misdemeanors are held in the detention room at the court house until they can be arraigned, but hose charged with felonies and all women suspects are taken immediately to the county jail.
    "Our biggest sources of trouble are disputes over mining matters and water rights," Captain Marty said. "Unless these arguments are caught and arbitrated promptly they develop into what are frequently mean cases. We try to get on the job and iron the difficulty out before it has gone too far. I wouldn't be surprised if we hadn't headed off some gun play in several cases."
    California state highway patrolmen who cover about the same area as the sheriff deputies, and who cooperate with the sheriff's men are Cliff Woodruff, Al Ashton, Ed Nettleship, Floyd Winchell, John Reed, William Anderson and Walter Maxey.

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©1938, THE SIGNAL · USED BY PERMISSION · ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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