The Progressive Era

A City on the Rise

  • 1903

    Police Chief Frederick Kohler is appointed Chief of Police. He is later called “the best police chief of the best governed city” by President Theodore Roosevelt

    Corner policemen are placed at the city’s busiest corners

  • 1904

    Fingerprinting system started

  • 1906

    Cleveland street names are changed to a number system

    First juvenile detention home in the city opens

  • 1910

    Department acquires its first motorcycles

  • 1911

    Cleveland's first mounted unit organized

  • 1912

    Municipal Court organized

  • 1913

    Automobiles used for first time as patrol cars

  • 1919

    Line-up room designed and installed

  • 1925

    General Electric installs a string of automatic lights along Euclid Avenue. They are controlled by men in a signal tower

    Police Women's Bureau is formed

  • 1926

    New Central Station on Payne Ave. opens

  • 1929

    Cleveland Police Radio station established