Ames Police Department

Town Marshall William A. Ricketts, affectionately known as Big Bill, was a one-person police force from 1896 to 1903, when the Ames population was 2,400. Ricketts spent his time corralling brawlers, chastising bootleggers, and nabbing thieves.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

This 1921 view of the Municipal Building shows an Ames policeman
on a motorcycle equipped with a sidecar.

click to enlarge
(photo courtesy of Terry Bird)

Police Chief Bill Cure points at the new patrol car the Ames Police Department acquired around 1930. Jack Goosman checks out the view from the driver's seat as Owen Cox looks on. The stop light on the fender would flash as the patrol car approached a traffic offender.  - New patrol cars of 1958-

click to enlarge
(photo courtesy of Becky Fehring)

Thanks to Terry Bird for the identifications in this photo believed to be from the early 1940s:

Back row from left: ???, Tom Lyttle, ???, Harold Green, Eldon Hand
Middle row: ???, four Iowa Highway Patrolmen, ???
Front row: Ray Truesdale, O.J. Erickson, Arlie Schumer, Harold Olson, ???

click to enlarge
(photo courtesy of Becky Fehring)

Harold Green, Donald Risewick, ?? Briley, Harry Finch

click to enlarge

May, 1955

Police dispatcher Arlie Schumer

Jay Ferguson, 1957

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