History of the High Point Police Department

lineup On May 26, 1859, the N.C. General Assembly authorized the establishment of a town named "High Point" in Guilford County. The corporate limits of the town were declared to be one mile north, south, east and west from the intersection of Fayetteville and Plank Roads, making a square of two miles. On July 28, 1859, the Town of High Point Board of Commissioners met. Their forth order of business during the meeting was recorded in the minutes as, "The Commissioners shall annually appoint a Town Constable whose duty it shall be to carry the laws of the town into execution, and to collect the town tax and the same to pay over to the Treasurer of the Board of Commissioners." Then on August 1, 1859, the first Town Constable, John W. Lambeth, was appointed and was charged with enforcing nine city ordinances that covered two handwritten pages.

On November 28, 1859, the first patrol officers were appointed. The following is an excerpt from the minutes of the Board of Commissioners meeting: "It is the opinion of all good citizens of the Town of High Point it is deemed necessary to have an efficient Patrol for said town. Therefore it is ordained by the Commissioners that James Campbell, Wyatt Bowman, L.M. Gilliam, John Linthicum, Seaborn Perry, B.G. Hunt and W.L. English be appointed Patrol Officers of the Town of High Point. It is further ordained that all persons within the Corporation between the ages of 18 and 30 years shall do Patrol duty and it shall be the duty of the Patrol Officers or any one of them with two or more persons subject to patrol duty to patrol the town each and every night from and after nine o'clock. And that James Campbell patrol every Sunday night, W.L. English every Monday night, Seaborn Perry every Tuesday night, B.G. Hunt every Wednesday night, L.M. Gilliam every Thursday night, Wyatt Bowman every Friday night and John Linthicum every Saturday night. It shall be the duty of the Patrol Officers to summons two or more citizens to patrol with them each and every night and any person failing after being thus summonsed to do patrol duty shall pay a fine of One Dollar."

In the early days of High Point, the Board of Commissioners made the local laws and ordinances, while the mayor served as judge over the accused. The mayor decided the amount of costs, fines and penalties if one was needed. Most crime, compared to crime today, was slight and resulted in fines. However sometimes the mayor sentenced someone to spend time in the "guardhouse". Records indicate that a guard was paid $1.00 extra per month to stay overnight with a prisoner.

In 1907, cocaine became a problem in High Point. This was the result: "Be it ordained by the Board of Aldermen of the City of High Point, that it shall be unlawful for any physician within the city limits to prescribe cocaine to any person, except those under his treatment and professional care. It shall be unlawful for any physician or druggist in the city limits to dispense or sell cocaine to any person in a greater quantity than five grains, and no druggist shall dispense or sell or give away cocaine, except on the prescription of a licensed practicing physician. Any physician or druggist violating this ordinance shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction before the Mayor shall be fined not less than $25.00 nor more than $50.00 at the discretion of the court."

old bike In the early 1900’s High Point was known as “Little Chicago” due to the amount of crime in the city.

In 1918 the Police Department received its first vehicle; a Model T Ford. That same year the City Council ordered the Police Department to start issuing Drivers Licenses. They cost one dollar.

In 1919 the Police Department received its first two police motorcycles. According to officer J.R. Pierce they were hard to start and unless the engine was running almost impossible to catch anyone spotted breaking the law.

In 1937 the first case of currency counterfeiting on record in High Point was solved. The suspect passed 17 five dollar silver certificates knowing them to be counterfeit.

In 1938 the Police Department obtained 2 way radios for there patrol cars. This allowed officers to be dispatched to calls more quickly. During the period before police cars had radios, officers had to watch lights attached to buildings downtown. When the light came on the officer had to call in by phone to find out the location of his next call.

In 1985 the Police Department was moved out of City Hall and into its own dedicated building located at 1009 Leonard Ave. This building was a former elementary school, originally built in 1963. The Police Department at this time was allotted 156 sworn officer positions and 25 civilian employees. Under Chief Faircloth, the Department instituted its take home car policy. Officers were assigned a patrol vehicle and allowed to drive it home if they lived inside the city limits of High Point. This policy reduced the wear and tear on police vehicles, and also had a side benefit of increasing the visibility of police officers within the city. On a tactical level it also affords the Chief of Police the ability to put every single officer on the street in times of crisis in a relatively short amount of time.

In 1992 plans for a new addition to the police department were unveiled and in April of 1995, the police department's extension was dedicated. With the new addition the Police Department was able to house its property room on site and was able to completely move out of City Hall. A larger new crime lab was added, a workout room, a training room, sally port and the Records Division was moved to its current location.

old In 1997, Louis Quijas, a retired Major with the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department was sworn in as the Chief of Police. That same year the Violent Crime task force was implemented to combat the high rate of violent crime in the city and the homicide rate, which had reached an all time high.

The late 1990’s brought many technology changes to the PD. Probably one of the biggest changes was the implementation of the Mobile Data Terminal. When patrol officers were equipped with these they became much more self-sufficient. Instead of having to call into the Police Station via radio and wait for a response, officers were now able to instantly check that information for themselves. This was a huge time saver and also helped with officer safety.

In November 1998 the Police Department brought back the use of Motorcycles within the Traffic Unit. The Department motor unit rode BMW R1100 Motorcycles until 2006 they switched from BMW motorcycles to new Harley Davidson models.

In 2002, Chief Quijas retired as the Chief of Police to accept an Assistant Director Position with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Major Blair Rankin stepped in as Interim Chief of Police while the process for selecting a new Chief could be started.

In January 2003, James Fealy was sworn in as the new Chief of Police. Chief Fealy came to us from the Austin, Texas Police Department where he retired as an Assistant Chief. Also in 2003 the Police Department teamed with Professor David Kennedy to work on tweaking the Violent Crimes Task Force model. During this collaboration with Professor Kennedy, the strategy for eliminating overt drug markets was born.

The Overt Drug Market strategy is a wonderful example of true Community Policing. A partnership was developed between the Police Department and members of the Community. The High Point Citizens Against Violence was created and together we are continually working to make High Point the safest City in America.

In 2006 the Police Department was a runner up for the Herman Goldstein award for our work with the Eliminating Overt Drug Markets strategy. Even though we didn't win the award, we gained national attention after The Wall Street Journal published an in depth article about our strategy. Published on September 27th, 2006 the article was titled, "Police Tactic Puts Drug Markets Out of Business."

Almost a year after the Wall Street Journal Article on September 25, 2007, the High Point Police Department was a winner of Harvard University's Ash Institute Innovations in American Government Award. The award was presented during the 20th anniversary of the Innovations in American Government award at a reception in Washington D.C.The award included $100,000.00 to be used to help promote and replicate the strategy around the country.

Combining creative and innovative police work and motivated sworn and civilian staff the men and women of the High Point Police Department continue to serve the citizens of High Point and add to the rich tradition of the department.