ALAMEDA COUNTY SHERIFF’S ARCHIVE ASSOCIATION

Law enforcement museums and archives are scarce. There have been laws of secrecy surrounding police activities that have changed. Not what you think. Secrecy by law for inmate privacy, for instance. No pictures of inmates could be published, nor any broad information about officers who feared retaliation from former inmates was published. In fact, when Gleason was sheriff, his edict was if an officer (not during a criminal event) made the newspapers, it was a fire-able offense. Near the end of his term, Gleason relaxed that rule.

Rules about records are still in place.  They are saved for about 30 years or so and tossed. That is history tossed. When ACSAA first organized, in 1989, no police museums open to the public existed in the State of California and very few in the United States.  The only histories were in private corners of a department, or in local historical society records, all of which brings me to a major reorganization of the ACSAA. We are a non-profit, volunteer organization, but under Sheriff Greg Ahern, we are being recognized and appreciated like never  before. And, here are the new organizers.

Dale Toussaint, on the left with Pat Adams. Dale was the guy who took over. He joined the National Organization of Archivists and is learning how to handle archival written material, artifacts and how to assession material professionally. On Wednesday, he held the first recruitment/organizational meeting.

Mike Rores and Frank Buschhueter

Tim Ostlund, Frank Silva and Patty Stinson. Patty Stinson is unique because she is the oldest women to pass the Academy as a deputy,  plus she is an artist and produced three giant murals for the Office of Emergency Services at the Santa Rita Base, which I will blog later.

Chris Ostlund and Ralph Striker.Patty with Dwane Montes.

Bill Gordillo with Mike Rores.

Jesus Ureste.

Bud Harlan with Dwane Montes. Bud is the only volunteer from the old days when I ran the archive.  He has been a great contributor and a steady presence at the archive. For myself, I feel my greatest contribution has been the interviews I’ve done recording experiences in the department as it changed over the generations. During the seven plus years I’ve been on the road with Jim, I still managed an interview or two a year. I hope to continue that practice. In fact I was given the names of Jim Wilson, 84 years, and Bud Garrigan as two must interviews. On my own personal list I have Bud Harlan, and one of the original volunteers, Jim Rasche.

As I get to know people, I hope to continue interviews when I can. More on my two-day trek to the Bay Area tomorrow.  (I hope I got everyone’s name right. If not, please correct me.)

 

 

 

A NEW OPERATING SYSTEM IS NOT FUN.

I’m switching to a new operating system, and a new computer with system 7. Oh, joy. Jim is helping me and encouraging me by saying, you’ll love system 7 over Vista when you get used to it.

This morning, my new operating system allows pop up videos to interfere with my blog, right in my face, will not click off immediately, though it has an off X button. It won’t respond until after you’ve hit it two or three times.

Jim spent about five hours yesterday getting my programs to behave. Nice. Now I can open old documents on my new computer. But, it won’t recognize my old documents in the same form. And instead of clicking on a document to open it, I now, I have to click on the doc, then on O F and then on okay before it will open. Three clicks. And to save any changes I have to…. oh well, bitch, bitch, bitch. You get the point. It is going to be a long week and without Jim’s help, I’d have pitched the S-O-B by now.

WordPress had an announcement about all the coming changes this morning. I watched a video and looked at three different presenters, themes, was one. Another was apps. Apparently there are 27,000 app makers that want to work with WordPress. I can see the changes coming. Why allow users the convenience of one click when three will be better?

I have people tell me they love our site because it is so clean and to the point. I might be long winded but, I don’t have distracting stuff all over my site.  If the presenters have their way, everyone will have to put up with a certain amount of advertising. My daughter alerted me that when I post comments, there are ads next to many of the comments. Don’t you just love it?  We gave up TV because commercials drove us nuts. When it gets too thick, I’m giving notice.

You can tell I’m frustrated. I apologize for bending your ear when everyone out there has faced something similar. We are all in the same …

 

THAI AND MEX IN ONE DAY.

It was a long slog from Murphys to the Sacramento Airport to fly to Yuma. I got stalled in commuter traffic and worried that I’d make my flight in time even though I allowed an extra hour. Something new called Pre-security where I didn’t have to take off my shoes, or put anything out in trays?  Fast and easy, I liked it. And, Finally able to relax, I had just enough time to enjoy a big bowl of Thai chicken soup for my breakfast. It was very good; plentiful and full of chicken.

My flight was so full on both legs, they were removing carry-on bags and putting them in checked baggage. Three flights leaving at one gate within minutes of each other made for crowded conditions and a few snafus. An older man and his wife asked us to vacate our seats. They had the same number as myself and my seat mate. It turned out they were on the wrong plane. But, I arrived in Yuma, met Jim and we headed for a Mexican restaurant.

As we crossed the bridge over the Southern Crossing of the Colorado River, I was reminded of our previous stay in Yuma in 2008 and my conversation with my seat mate on the plane. A young business woman, she asked me what there is to see and do in Yuma? I told her about the historically important southern crossing, the Yuma territorial prison, the vast green fields of produce grown here and watered by canals. Growers ship 20,000 container trucks of produce all over the United States from here during the winter months by train. Up to a hundred containers a day stacked two high leave Yuma.  With a brown winter in Murphys, I’m hungry for that green. Today, I want to drive by green fields.

At La Fonda, I enjoyed a wonderful tasting tortilla soup.

Jim had a sumptuous chicken tostada.  Ahhh! Mex and Thai in the same day. Sweet!

We are boondocking at the Quechen Casino. There are probably 100 rigs in the parking lot. Jim laughed at my surprise and told me that last week there were about 12 rigs parked here.

On our evening walk, we found one rig that looked like a derelict from the Slabs, where we will visit soon. I love the Slabs. Can’t wait to see the changes from 2008.