By Cecilia Keehan
 Joseph McNamara, former San Jose police chief, addresses the Los Altos Morning Forum audience. |
Joseph D. McNamara, Research Fellow at Hoover Institution and internationally renowned expert in criminal justice, spoke to the Los Altos Morning Forum Sept. 20. McNamara, known locally as police chief in San Jose for 15 years and in Kansas City before that, did not discuss his career.
His topic was Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. Although McNamara related many events and anecdotes from throughout Roosevelt’s life, he concentrated on the years 1885-1887 when Teddy, then 36, served as New York City Police Commissioner.
McNamara said that Roosevelt was already famous at this point. In 1881, he had been the youngest man elected to the New York state Assembly from New York City. He was re-elected with the largest majority of any of the legislators, selected minority leader and known for his reform legislation.
Roosevelt joined the National Guard and was commissioned a second lieutenant during this time. He had already shown his interest in the wilderness and owned two cattle ranches in the Dakota Badlands.
The young New Yorker went to Washington when he was appointed U.S. Civil Service Commissioner in 1889.
The New York media loved the dashing Roosevelt and they wanted him back to attack New York City’s corruption.
Because of his background, he was an improbable choice for police commissioner. He’d come from a wealthy family and was a frail and sickly child. But he rose to the challenge when asked and headed a police force of 4,000. In contrast, London with 3 million residents did without a police force, McNamara said.
“Teddy the Cop: The New York Police Commissioner who changed the nation and the world,” a forthcoming book by McNamara, concentrates on Roosevelt’s accomplishments during this short time. He changed police procedures when he initiated “midnight rambles” to pinpoint police officers who were not at their posts and instituted mandatory target practice for officers. His reforms became the foundation of the modern police academy.
Roosevelt resigned in 1897 when President William McKinley recalled him to Washington to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
Roosevelt left to lead the 1st Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, the famous “Rough Riders,” up San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War. He returned to be elected McKinley’s vice president and succeeded him in 1901, the youngest man to become president, when McKinley was assassinated. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize during his presidency.
Although he had been assemblyman and governor of New York, vice president and president of the United States, Roosevelt badly wanted to be mayor of New York City, but lost in that bid.
McNamara’s interest in Roosevelt is not surprising. Both men brought the unusual symbiosis of academics and police work to their communities. McNamara, like Roosevelt, served in the NYPD, starting his career as a beat cop in Harlem. Both men attended Harvard. Roosevelt received an undergraduate degree, magna cum laude in 1880. McNamara earned a doctorate in law and public administration.
Both men published books on varied topics. Roosevelt’s first, started while he was in college, “The Naval Wars of 1812,” was required reading at the Naval Academy at Annapolis for years.
Morning Forum is a members-only lecture series held at the United Methodist Church of Los Altos. To get on a waiting list for membership, write to: Morning Forum, P.O. Box 274, Los Altos 94023-0274.
