Robert B. Powers

Stephen Powers did not serve in the Civil War, though the state sided with the Union, and the family has traces back to Ireland before 1771.

Powers dropped out of school in the fifth grade.

Father Stephen had been born around 1866 in Hawesville, Kentucky.

His grandfather had many years of service as a soldier, lawyer, and banker in Kentucky.

Through his grandfather Powers is kin to Tom Powers and Hiram Powers.

Robert B. Powers, (October 3, 1900 – December 3, 1976) was a prominent police officer in the history of California, first as Chief of Police in Bakersfield, California (1933–1945) and as the chief enforcement officer at the state level (1944–1947) during which he co-established one of the earliest training programs for police in matters of race relations.

Robert "Bob" Boyd Powers was born October 3, 1900, in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

He was the second eldest son of Stephen and M. Powers, themselves both born in Kentucky.

By 1910 he had an elder brother Joshua, two elder sisters and three younger sisters.

All the siblings were born in New Mexico.

He worked as a personnel sergeant in 1920, and the US Census had his as a soldier at Camp Furlong near Luna, New Mexico.

He later worked as a clerk in the office of the chief of cavalry in Washington, D.C. until 1922.

After being discharged, he served as a state trooper and corporal in New Jersey into 1923.

His grandfather died in Louisville, Kentucky, that year.

Powers quit that job after hoping for advancement but working for an oil company to February 1924 was not it.

Neither was re-enlisting as he found after a few months in 1924 at Fort Slocum (New York).

He then worked as a railroad "special agent" protecting trains and added time as a deputy sheriff in New Mexico and Arizona.

Powers was hired as a motorcycle patrolman in January 1928 for the Bakersfield Police Department though his actual work initially was as a stenographer.

And he married Mildred Irwin, daughter of a former district attorney, December 1928.

Because of his training as a solo officer earlier he made a reputation of solo achievements in the force and was promoted to sergeant in 1930.

In the US Census had the Powers family of Robert and Mildred living on 19th St, Bakersfield renting a home paying $30/mth (about $470/mth in 2021 dollars ), listed as a traffic officer.

He developed an interest in traffic patrolling and management of security for schools.

In 1931 he became a lieutenant, and later Chief of police of the Bakersfield police force in 1933.

He also undertook professional training at the University of California, Los Angeles police school, the FBI school in Monterey and the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

Perhaps his first major engagement as chief of police was in the repercussions of the California Agricultural Strike 1933.

From May to October 1938 a murder case consumed his time - that of Mathias Warren, father to Earl Warren who was soon to be was Attorney General, then governor, and in time, supreme court justice.

His income for 1939 was about $3600 (about $67k in 2021 dollars. )

While police chief, Powers viewed the overall police force across the state as ill-educated, politically connected, and "corrupt" by modern standards.

Out of a desire to shore up an independent and capable police force under his authority he began to revise procedures and investigative techniques and at the same time revise local regulation so that the chief's position was under a civil service categorization and thus under the city manager and not directly responsible to the city council.

Powers instituted on-the-job training that included public school type curriculum like English classes so that officers would be more enabled to use words instead of weapons, and professional skills like handling fingerprints.

He got the police to actually learn the law so that they didn't cause problems for themselves.

The 1940 US Census finds the Powers family of Robert Sr, listed as Chief of Police, wife Mildred, sons Robert Jr and Stephen, and a nurse living with the family on B. Street in Bakersfield where Powers owned the home work $8000 in 1940.

(about $150k in 2021 dollars. ) The family had lived in the same place in April 1935.

In April 1944, Powers wrote a "letter to the editor" of the local newspaper about rules of engagement of police - that a policeman has an instant choice of killing someone or not whereas courts can take weeks or months to decide, and thus sometimes lets an apparent criminal escape.

In late March his father had died in Coronado.

When he was appointed chief there were 38 houses of prostitution known in the community and only 11 when he left as Chief.

Powers was also a strong voice in determining successive chiefs through to 1966.

His appointed successor was able to close the remaining 11.

Under his review the marchers were allowed to take murdered bodies to City Hall to make their protest, noting, (when interviewed in 1970,) "Their motives may have been to turn this country 'Red', but their activities in attempting to get a living wage for the workers were certainly justified."

Somewhat charmed at the romantic stories of Lawrence of Arabia and military service, he enlisted in military service at 17 years old and was assigned to the 12th Cavalry Regiment.