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Concept
Richard H. Sylvester
Summary
Richard H. Sylvester Jr. (August 14, 1859 – December 11, 1930) was the Chief of Police for Washington, District of Columbia from July 1898 to April 1915. He was an early president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). Sylvester played an influential role in militarization of U.S. police departments in the early 20th century.
Sylvester was born in Iowa City, Iowa on August 14, 1859 to Richard H. Sylvester Sr.
He attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he majored in law, but he dropped out to become a journalist. He began working at papers in the Midwest. He was sent to Washington, D.C. as a newspaper correspondent. He worked as a disbursement officer with the Ute Indian Commission.
In 1898 Sylvester became Chief of Police for Washington, DC in 1898.
During his tenure as Police Chief, Sylvester advocated for the use of the .38 caliber pistol by police (a weapon previously used by the military), referred to police officers as "citizen-soldiers", and advocated the use of similar interrogation techniques as used against Filipino insurgents by the U.S. military during the Philippine wars and occupation. Sylvester, who was police chief in Washington, D.C., which had a substantial nonwhite population, believed that racial minorities were morally degenerate and opposed racial intermingling. As police chief, his main targets were racial minorities.
Sylvester divided police procedures into the arrest as the first degree, transportation to jail as the second degree and interrogation as the third degree.
He retired as Chief of Police for Washington, DC on March 6, 1915 after charges were filed against him for his failure to protect suffragettes during their march in Washington on the day before the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, and accusations of corruption laid against him by Congressman Frank Park.
He was succeeded by Raymond W. Pullman.
He established the du Pont protection division in 1914 to ensure the safety of the company's plants manufacturing materiel during World War I.
Official source
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