This story is titled, “Phoenix First Motorcycle Cop”. As I continued my research for this article, Kathy Bell at the Police Museum, located an article written by Kenneth Arline for a Phoenix Police Newsletter. Like everyone else who read this story, I had no problem accepting the fact that Harrison had to be the first Phoenix Motorcycle Officer. He was given his choice of a new motorcycle, so he chose an Indian chain driven cycle which he ended up driving all over the State of Arizona in his duties as a Deputy Sheriff. Sometime around 1914 or 1915 the new County Sheriff offered Harrison a twenty five dollar a month raise to lateral over, which he quickly (accepted). Downtown Phoenix was surrounded by farmland and (d)airies. Harrison described the downtown area back then as having a saloon in every other building. 45 caliber Colt revolver(.) and with no training whatsoever(,) he was put to work for one hundred dollars a month, a healthy salary back in those rough days. Moore was running the show back then when he invited Harrison to join the Police department and bring his cycle with him. He was surprised to see a man’s head underneath the hat, and below that his body and the (h)orse that was still under him. Harrison used to tell his grandchildren a somewhat “tall tale” about how one day he was walking down the board covered walkway on a rainy day when he reached down to pick up a man’s Stetson hat. There were no paved streets in Phoenix back then and Harrison had to ride cautiously on the sometimes very muddy streets. Officer’s were walking, riding bicycles, or horse drawn carriages, Harrison patrolled the streets on his M&M belt driven cycle. Harrison lied about his age(,) saying he was 21 or at least everyone assumed he was 21, which was the minimum required age for a Police Officer back then. Harrison told her that he joined the Phoenix Police Department in 1911 when he was only 18 years old. In 1973 Harrison was 80 years old when he told his story to Arizona Republic reporter Melody Cornett. Williams (as) being the very first Phoenix Police Motorcycle Officer. While spending endless hours scanning photos last year at the Phoenix Police Museum I came across several 1973 photo’s of former Chief of Police Larry Wetzel recognizing Harrison M. I immediately began to gather background information and stories I have gathered from the ARPO (Association of Retired Phoenix Officers) web site, and even some old internet articles about Indian and Harley Davidson Police motorcycles, when I discovered a mystery that definitely needs solving.
I was recently asked to write a story about Phoenix Police Motorcycle Officers.
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