History Watch: “Beat the Heat”

History Watch:
"Beat the Heat"
Back in the day, the uniform for San Rafael Police Officers was a long sleeve shirt and tie.  It didn't matter how hot it was, that is what you wore and that was that.  During the administration of Chief Charles J. Chiesa, he decided to make a small change to help Officers during the hot summer months.  Starting around 1962, he adopted a policy that if the temperature reached 90 degrees, a special radio code was put out by dispatch and officers were allowed to remove their tie and roll up their sleeves.  The determination was made by the on duty Sergeant.  Keep in mind that patrol cars in those days did not have air conditioning.
In the summer of 1965, Chief Chiesa took another step to help his overheated officers.  He changed the department uniform by allowing officers to wear light blue short sleeve shirts with no tie.  He added another mandate by having all traffic officers wear white hats.  Officers not in traffic had to continue to wear the standard dark blue hat.  Short sleeve shirts were only allowed to be worn during Daylight Savings Time and when Pacific Standard Time returned, officers had to revert to the long sleeve shirts and ties.  This policy continued for a number of years and in the early 1970's Officers were finally allowed to wear either short sleeve or long sleeve shirts year around, which is the case today.
Attached is a photo taken in July of 1965 of Officers John Rosentangle and Gerald Souza wearing their new short sleeve shirts.  Note that Rosentangle, who was in the Traffic Division, is also wearing a white hat while Souza is in the traditional blue hat.
Copyright 2014 Harry Barbier –All Rights Reserved