CELEBRATION
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ST. LUCIE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Advances in technology have been a game changer over the last century.
From this bulky radio and landline in the 1940s to today’s laptops and
cellphones, policing is safer, faster and more efficient.
FORT PIERCE POLICE DEPARTMENT
Officer John Ashton and his K-9 partner, Tucker, are part of a four-team unit
that is vital to the department for tracking and criminal apprehension.
ST. LUCIE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Years ago, meter maids Mildred Roberts, left, and Vassie Osteen patrolled
downtown Fort Pierce checking for parking violators.
LONG-SERVING CHIEFS
Longevity has been the mark of tenures in recent years.
Eugene Savage, the department’s first African American
chief, succeeded Mahar and served a decade before passing
his mantle to R. Sean Baldwin, who served almost as long.
Hobley-Burney has led the department since 2015.
Fort Pierce’s first police chief was Howard Richards, the
grandson of a local pioneer. Historian Jean Wilson writes that
one of his first cases involved a man impersonating a police
officer who threatened to arrest several citizens until they
paid him $10. He later became a federal agent.
Other firsts are also worth noting. In 1951, Chief J.R.
Norvell hired the department’s first African American officers,
Louis Gilchrist and Eddie Bailey. Today’s department
includes 33 black officers, along with other ethnicities.
In 1972, then-Officer Mahar headed up the new K-9 unit. Today’s
K-9 unit consists of four teams composed of six dogs, two
sergeants and three officers and five specially outfitted vehicles.
The department’s first full-fledged policewoman was hired
in 1973. When Judge Royce Lewis swore in 24-year-old Fonda
Doane, he said, “I feel it fills a void longstanding in the community
and I hope it is not an isolated instance.” His hopes
were fulfilled; today there are 26 female officers, with other
female duty officers and support staff.
For years, the department was headquartered with the
city courthouse and jail at 435 N. Seventh St. It moved to 920
South U.S. 1 in August 1988.