Chapter1
Joining the Department
I never gave much thought about being a cop; it was a decision more or less made by accident. I left the Marine Corps as a Sergeant in February of 1967, and was looking forward to resuming the life I had prior to my military obligation. I took a job as a draftsman at the Budd Company Railcar Division, on Red Lion Road in the Northeast section of Philadelphia. After several threats of going out on strike from union grievances with the shop-end of the company, I was getting frustrated. I had rent to pay and other financial responsibilities and couldn’t afford the loss of a pay check. At the end of April I decided I had enough, and was going to return to the Marine Corps. While riding in a subway-car towards 30th Street Railroad Station, I looked up at a marquee advertising jobs with the Philadelphia Police Department. Thinking about it for a moment I figured,Why not? I had nothing to lose.” Getting off the subway at city hall I went up the stairs and entered the building. I inquired at the information desk about the job, and was handed a 3” x 5” card to fill-out. Handing the card back, the person behind the desk noted I had just left the military and handed me a test booklet. I sat back down and answered the questions the best I could. They were general information questions about my background and education level. It also had questions pertaining to the geography of the city. After handing the test back, I was told I’d receive a card in the mail of when and where I was to go.
Within a few days the card came with the test score. I scored high, and on the card it gave the location where I was to report, the Police Administration Building at 8th and Race Street in center city. Gathering with other applicants in the auditorium on a Thursday afternoon at 4:30 p.m., we were given a lecture about the department. After the lecture, we were told to report to the Police Academy on State Road on Monday morning the 15th of May.
***
After arriving at the academy we were separated into two groups; around thirty peo
