1 Adam-12, 1 Adam-12; See the man ............

[J Miller]

So, since the bought with e-coli last year I have been watching one of my favorite shows; Adam 12.

I've noticed some things I thought I might ask those of you in California who might remember that time period.

>First, the lights on the cars. Two solid ambers from the front, might be red but they do look amber and two alternating reds from the rear. Siren in the center.

In Phoenix where I lived then, the police cruisers were using actual light bars with red 360s and red and amber ping pongs with the siren mounted on the bar. It doubled as the PA speaker as well. They hadn't gone to the red/blue then. Later they went to the bars with fully enclosed 360s and red outer plastic housings.

So were the LAPD cruisers still using those lights as shown on Adam 12 in the mid 70s?

>Second, The Adam 12 cruisers did not have cages or dividers between the back seat and the front seat. And the rear door handles and locks were still on the doors.
When a suspect was taken in the car to the station he/she was put in the back seat and the second officer sat beside him.

The Phoenix PD had expanded metal screens between the front seats and rear compartment then and the door handles and locks were removed. Later they went to solid armored plexiglass shields.
Bad guy in the back, cops in the front.

So, were the LAPD cars actually set up like that?

>Third, This throws me for a loop, when the second officer gets in the car after the suspect is put in he always sits to the left with his holstered gun next to the suspect. A disaster waiting to happen. Was this the way they did it?


Now guys I realize this is a TV show, but considering Jack Webbs involvement with the LAPD and his bent on accuracy I just have to ask these things.

I do miss that era. Big cast iron big block motivators under the hoods. Romp on the gas pedal and get rewarded with a throaty roar that just pleased the soul. Cars now adays suck.


Joe

[jeepnik]

Now, not that I've seen those lights in my mirror, yea right, but it was reds in front and amber in the rear. Wasn't Adam 12 black & white? Cages, no cages at that time.

As to where the officer sat, I think the idea was that the suspect wasn't behind the driver. It would be more difficult to say head butt the driver from the right side. And, since they always put the cuffs on tight and double locked them, unless you were Houdini, you weren't going to get out of them without being noticed. Of course, this is all hear say, I was never in the back of a cruiser with cuffs on.

[J Miller]

jeepnic,

Me neither on the back seat with cuffs on. But I've seen several put there, and I've seen a few contort themselves to the point that nothing short of the shield between the front and back would protect the front seat occupants.

As for the lights, I'll have to watch more closely tomorrow.

Joe

[1894c]

my "ADAM" number is 415... :)

[Sixgun]

Joe,
3 years ago I was in the backseat of a Pa. State Police car, handcuffed..........with a loaded S&W 38 in my front pocket, while my buddy was on the pavement, spread eagled with a loaded Seecamp 32 auto in his front pocket. Yea, even State cops make HUGE mistakes.

After the fiasco ended and the cop told me he was releasing me, I told him, "hey bud, before you get all apologetic, you really ought to search your "prisoners" before putting them in the back seat, thinking they are harmless as I have a loaded 38 in my pocket"

His eyes got about the same size as an apple. I continued saying I had a son about his age and if he wanted to reach my age, he should learn a few street smarts.

My buddy and I were returning from a gun show and cruising down the turnpike. I was in the passenger seat inspecting my buddies 1894 in 25-35 that he bought and some old lady passed us and must have seen the barrel sticking up as she called the cops and said "I was holding the driver hostage".

Then.........after I told him about the gun and he took the cuffs off he asked ME to pull the gun out to which I told him, "no, you pull it out and by the way, my buddy is also armed".

I believe he learned 30 years of experience in that short half hour.----6

[Griff]

With the advent of color TV, cop cars were often painted a VERY dark green or blue and white. Then filmed with film that made them look black & white. LAPD did use to use two "gum-balls" on the light bar from roof from the mid-late '50s to mid '60s. After that they went to light bars. No cages were installed, they were almost always two officer cars, and one of the officers would ride in the back seat with the "perp". Cages started being installed in the early-mid '60s, as budgets were cut and 2 officer cars became a luxury. A lot of that had to do with what division the unit was assigned to.

Of course, this is filtered thru 50 years of memories from when I was a kid.

[Chuck 100 yd]

Car 54 where are you??? Anyone remember that show???

[Blaine]

Car 54 where are you??? Anyone remember that show???

Yup....

[Malamute]

I didn't know about car 54 until pretty recently. Ran across it on youtube, which also has tons of other old shows.

[jkbrea]

With the advent of color TV, cop cars were often painted a VERY dark green or blue and white. Then filmed with film that made them look black & white. LAPD did use to use two "gum-balls" on the light bar from roof from the mid-late '50s to mid '60s. After that they went to light bars. No cages were installed, they were almost always two officer cars, and one of the officers would ride in the back seat with the "perp". Cages started being installed in the early-mid '60s, as budgets were cut and 2 officer cars became a luxury. A lot of that had to do with what division the unit was assigned to.

Of course, this is filtered thru 50 years of memories from when I was a kid.

Radios and spotlights were also a "luxury" item for LAPD for a while. They had those call boxes. The old timers where I worked told me back in the day there was a red light on a 60' pole on top of the station. When it came on, they drove back to the station to get the call.

[Gobblerforge]

What is an "Adam" number?
Gobbler

[DPris]

Can't speak for LA in the 70s, but before my Utah PD started getting cages in the mid-80s, if two officers transported a particularly squirrely prisoner the officer in the back seat sat behind the driver, specifically to keep the prisoner away from him if a scuffle started up enroute.

You do your best to search thoroughly, cuff correctly, and belt tightly, and you keep an eye on the guy or gal the whole way.

Only once on a two-man arrestee transport, with a local biker club member who always wore a hatchet on his belt & was twice as big as me, did I hand my SIG to the officer driving before we started off downtown. (The guy wasn't exactly twice as big as me, but he was a moose.)
Only time I ever considered the arrestee to be a serious enough possibility of POTENTIALLY getting at my gun.

The theory was if a prisoner started a tussle, cuffed & belted, the officer in the back seat with him was expected to see it beginning, handle it before it escalated & keep the prisoner away from the driver while the officer in front kept on driving.

If it got beyond the ability of the backseat officer to contain, he did his best & gave the driver enough time to pull over & join in.

Even a cage didn't stop backseat windows from being kicked out, and if a prisoner was especially violent & out of control after cages were introduced, policy developed that allowed him or her to be transported to jail cuffed, leg-ironed, and with a set of additional cuffs connecting upper & lower "iron" behind the body.

But, anyway.... That was our reason for the backseat officer sitting behind the driver, in pre-cage days.
Denis

[J Miller]

Denis,

That makes sense.

Joe

[DPris]

You seeing one of the push-button breakfront hinged clamshell holsters yet?

I have one somewhere in the basement.
Never used it, consider it a curiosity.

Would not trust it, but did see Malloy (I think) use one on the show, so acquired it as a "specimen".
Denis

[J Miller]

You seeing one of the push-button breakfront hinged clamshell holsters yet?

I have one somewhere in the basement.
Never used it, consider it a curiosity.

Would not trust it, but did see Malloy (I think) use one on the show, so acquired it as a "specimen".
Denis

Yeah, they have them on some of the later episodes and the regular holsters on earlier and I think later ones.

I never used one of those, I kept to my straps and thumb break types.

Joe

[jkbrea]

I worked with an old timer that retired from LAPD. That department was really into training and competition back in the day. If you were good you could tour on the international team. He said that you had to be careful in the station with those holsters. A buddy would walk by and push the button releasing the clamshell and your gun would fall out. He said that actually made you protect your gunside more.
What was funny then gets you fired now.

[DPris]

I latched onto a thumbbreak in '76 & never looked back.

No way I would have ever worn that clamshell.
Denis

[JohndeFresno]

What is an "Adam" number?
Gobbler

It varied with different larger agencies, but the number scheme might mean, for instance:
1 - Shift 1
A - Beat area, or it might be
. an Admin unit in some agencies;
. "D" might mean detective unit
12 - At least in my agency, odd numbers
. signified a lone unit - 11, 13, 15;
and even numbers meant a
. two man uniit - 12, 22, 32 etc.

So 1A12 might mean Day shift, Beat (Area) "A", a particular two man car.

[firefuzz]

Joe,
3 years ago I was in the backseat of a Pa. State Police car, handcuffed..........with a loaded S&W 38 in my front pocket, while my buddy was on the pavement, spread eagled with a loaded Seecamp 32 auto in his front pocket. Yea, even State cops make HUGE mistakes.

After the fiasco ended and the cop told me he was releasing me, I told him, "hey bud, before you get all apologetic, you really ought to search your "prisoners" before putting them in the back seat, thinking they are harmless as I have a loaded 38 in my pocket"

His eyes got about the same size as an apple. I continued saying I had a son about his age and if he wanted to reach my age, he should learn a few street smarts.

My buddy and I were returning from a gun show and cruising down the turnpike. I was in the passenger seat inspecting my buddies 1894 in 25-35 that he bought and some old lady passed us and must have seen the barrel sticking up as she called the cops and said "I was holding the driver hostage".

Then.........after I told him about the gun and he took the cuffs off he asked ME to pull the gun out to which I told him, "no, you pull it out and by the way, my buddy is also armed".

I believe he learned 30 years of experience in that short half hour.----6

It was dept. policy to "sweep" the back seat of your patrol car at the beginning of shift and after every prisoner transport in that vehicle to look for contraband the transportees might have dumped. I always did it, most of the guys didn't...pure laziness on their part IMHO. Found more than a few "baggies", both at the beginning of shift and after a few of my transports and over the years several knives and 5 guns at my beginning of shift checks. I've seen heavily tanned officers turn white as a sheet when I showed them the above items.....funny how none of the transportees ever wanted to claim the items.

Rob

[JNG]

Don't know about LA cars. I was a Park District Range in the late 70's and early 80's (became a fireman in 82, you grow). The director would not allow cages in the cars. Stated that it was unpark like. We tried to inform him that we did not arrest park like persons. It changed after he retired.

Joe

[2571]

We rode behind the driver to prevent the prisoner from getting a choke holder on the driver while the car was in motion.

Back seats in our Detroit patrol cars were made so as not to fasten to the car interior. Much easier to constantly monitor that area before & after transport. Didn't give a hoot about dope -- we were looking for that 1/1000 gun that got missed wrestling a prisoner into a scout car.

[JohndeFresno]

...So were the LAPD cruisers still using those lights as shown on Adam 12 in the mid 70s?

>Second, The Adam 12 cruisers did not have cages or dividers between the back seat and the front seat. And the rear door handles and locks were still on the doors...So, were the LAPD cars actually set up like that?...

Joe

LAPD, like many large departments with a large inventory and a mandate to use the budget they had, did not always have the very latest gadgets. I didn't work there, but I seem to recall that they stayed with the old style lights, and revolvers for that matter, a while after many departments modernized with better equipment. But their training was envied by most or all other municipal law enforcement agencies in the state, and often copied verbatim.

One example: The Koga self defense and control system, instituted by the late Robert Koga, an LAPD officer, using the stright baton and many Aikido techniques. It was and still is a very effective system. Sensei Koga's system was popular throughout our state and then into Canada and several other countries.

[Gobblerforge]

What is an "Adam" number?
Gobbler

It varied with different larger agencies, but the number scheme might mean, for instance:
1 - Shift 1
A - Beat area, or it might be
. an Admin unit in some agencies;
. "D" might mean detective unit
12 - At least in my agency, odd numbers
. signified a lone unit - 11, 13, 15;
and even numbers meant a
. two man uniit - 12, 22, 32 etc.

So 1A12 might mean Day shift, Beat (Area) "A", a particular two man car.

I did some digging and found that the call sign for that show was,
The designation "1-Adam-12" is a combination of three elements. The first element indicates the unit's LAPD division. The second element indicates the type of unit. The third element identifies the patrol car's number. The one in 1-Adam-12 means the patrol car operates in Division 1 (Central Division).[4] LAPD assigns two-person units the letter "A".[5] In the LAPD phonetic alphabet, the letter "A" is spoken as "Adam".[6] The third element is the last two digits of the patrol car's number. For 1-Adam-12, "One" is the division; "Adam" indicates the unit is a two-person unit; 12 is the last two digits of the patrol car's number. In the program, 1-Adam-12 typically operated in the Rampart Division, Division 2,[4] not the Central Division, Division 1,[4] meaning the unit's call sign should have technically been 2-Adam-12. There was never an actual patrol car with the call sign of 1-Adam-12.[7]
Gobbler

[JohndeFresno]

What is an "Adam" number?
Gobbler

It varied with different larger agencies, but the number scheme might mean, for instance:
1 - Shift 1
A - Beat area, or it might be
. an Admin unit in some agencies;
. "D" might mean detective unit
12 - At least in my agency, odd numbers
. signified a lone unit - 11, 13, 15;
and even numbers meant a
. two man uniit - 12, 22, 32 etc.

So 1A12 might mean Day shift, Beat (Area) "A", a particular two man car.

I did some digging and found that the call sign for that show was,
The designation "1-Adam-12" is a combination of three elements. The first element indicates the unit's LAPD division. The second element indicates the type of unit. The third element identifies the patrol car's number. The one in 1-Adam-12 means the patrol car operates in Division 1 (Central Division).[4] LAPD assigns two-person units the letter "A".[5] In the LAPD phonetic alphabet, the letter "A" is spoken as "Adam".[6] The third element is the last two digits of the patrol car's number. For 1-Adam-12, "One" is the division; "Adam" indicates the unit is a two-person unit; 12 is the last two digits of the patrol car's number. In the program, 1-Adam-12 typically operated in the Rampart Division, Division 2,[4] not the Central Division, Division 1,[4] meaning the unit's call sign should have technically been 2-Adam-12. There was never an actual patrol car with the call sign of 1-Adam-12.[7]
Gobbler

Interesting. Fresno SO copied the format above, but was precisely as I described; different; although they used things like K and N for the beat - 1K22, 2N21, etc. and 1D21 (e.g.) for a detective unit when I was there.

[Griff]

I'd tell you how ours worked... but that's "privileged" information... not for public dissemination.

[JohndeFresno]

I'd tell you how ours worked... but that's "privileged" information... not for public dissemination.

2H11 for dayshift one man on a horse?

[Hagler]

...how about CHiPs?:

7-Mary-3 & 7-Mary-4

Shawn

[J Miller]

CHiPs has got to rate very high on my all time STUPID cop shows. It's on now here in IL on MEtv and I've watched a few shows, but I feel like I loose brain cells every time I watch it.

Joe

[Griff]

I'd tell you how ours worked... but that's "privileged" information... not for public dissemination.

2H11 for dayshift one man on a horse?

Actually, we just went by our badge #... there weren't enough for it to be confusing! Mine was in the low 2-digits...

[J Miller]

I just watched an episode the other day where Mark Harmon played a rooky cop. Looked like he was about 15 years old ...

At one point he got out of the car and the clam shell holster popped open, his S&W Mdl 10 hit the asphalt and the grips broke. He didn't even know it and went after the BG anyway. Caught him too.
Bluffed him out and took him in custody.

Then when Malloy handed him his gun the inside grip was still attached to the gun, but the outside grip was not. No screw .... I've never seen a set of grips where one came off and the other stayed on the gun unless it was glued on. Kinda hokey to me.

Joe

[piller]

Hollywood has often been shown to have significant failures in the reality department.

[J Miller]

Hollywood has often been shown to have significant failures in the reality department.

I'll say!

Joe