Wayne Police Department will turn 100 this summer

Wayne Police Officer Jerry Warden in 1972.

This year is the centennial of Wayne having an official police department, having been established in the summer of 1926. Before this, back in the 1820s, the Wayne County sheriff would have to come out here from Detroit to arrest a suspect or investigate a crime.
In 1830 Nankin Township created the job of Constable, responsible for serving papers, assisting the justice of the peace and enforcing the law. There were only three constables responsible for the whole township.
When Wayne became a village in 1869 it created its own Marshal position, this man was responsible for patrolling its one square mile area, enforcing law, and made about $150 per year. The original “Lockup” was a small wooden building with two cells at the corner of Biddle and Brush streets.
In 1926 the formal police department was formed with a budget of $9,956.00 and the Marshal role disappeared. The first chief was Lawrence Knox, and first officer was Granville Morse. These two men patrolled Wayne for many years using their own cars and motorcycles before the department bought their first cars in 1940.
1941 brought the first two-way radios installed in the police cars, and slowly more men were added to the force, having seven by 1944. The original police station and jail from 1926-1950 was the village hall, which is now the museum.

In 1950 a new police station was built on Sims, and by 1955 there were 23 officers. In 1960 an auxiliary police was started for crowd and traffic control.
1974 saw the loss of the first Wayne Police officer in the line of duty, when Patrolman Leonard Anderson was shot responding to a mental health crisis. In 1976 the police station on Sims was expanded and remodeled, adding a second floor. In 1977 there were 38 officers and 20 auxiliary.
The first female Wayne police officer was Jocelyn Dillard who was hired in 1982. In 2004 the new police station opened on Michigan Avenue, replacing the Sims St. station, which was torn down.
Of course, many more highlights, good and bad, have happened over the past 100 years, but it’s just too much to fit in a newspaper column. Be sure to follow the museum for the date later this summer of its lecture on the history of the Wayne Police Department.