With the discovery of gold, an influx of migrants came to America. Because of this population explosion, the need for a larger police force was essential. Thousands of immigrants came to San Francisco hoping to discover if the rumors of golden paved roads and gold lying at every corner was true. Convicts, criminals and prospectors from every direction flocked to San Francisco en masse.
In the first days of August 1849, a suggestion was made to create a body of men to assist in the arrest of law breakers. At 3 p.m., about two hundred and thirty citizens assembled around the flagstaff at Portsmouth Square. They were then formed into "Special Constables" by Mr. Spofford, Chief of Police.
This group in the annals was actually the model of a committee of vigilance, and it was clearly a model that several groups of volunteer police displayed after forming in 1851.Their perfunctory duty was to perform night patrols of specified wards within San Francisco. Thus the birth of the San Francisco Patrol Special Police Officers came about.
During that time, the volunteer group began referring to themselves as a continuing organization abandoning the principle of temporary mobilization. By that same year, paid and professional Patrol Special Police Officers were on duty in San Francisco. They were appointed under the City Charter of 1850; Article 2, section 1: "The Mayor and common council... to establish and regulate a police".
As late as December 1855, the entire protection of San Francisco rested upon the special police, the regular force having resigned en masse. The "Special Police Force" was by then a recognized and separate entity. Yet, municipal revenues were clearly inadequate to support a sufficient number of police. It was clear then why the city gatherers were hesitant to finance a force adequate to the needs of public safety and why they had recourse to a system of unpaid volunteers. The Patrol Specials augmented the police and were paid by the private sector.
In 1850, the regular police force only numbered sixty nine officers. Fourteen years later, despite the increase in population, the number of police had declined to a mere fifty, a completely insufficient amount in the opinion of the Grand Jury that year. The deficiency was then placed upon the shoulders of the already existing Patrol Specials.
Efforts were repeatedly made to recognize and augment the situation pertaining to the regular police; the most significant advance was made in requiring uniforms in 1855. With low salaries, the Police Commission lacked numbers in applicants and those that did often lacked integrity and/or general fitness.
On the twenty-fifth of July 1851, the Alta California publication stressed the need of retaining qualified and honest incumbents during the reorganization of the Police. It is not altogether surprising that the City Fathers did not choose abolishing the Patrol Specials.
In 1855, a committee of the Board of Assistant Alderman reported back a proposal for "the entire abrogation of the system of Patrol Specials" but the measure failed of passage. However, the City County Consolidation Act, passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor on April 19, 1856 read, in part; section 27 " In case of great public emergency or danger, the Chief of Police may appoint and additional number of policemen, of approved character for honesty and sobriety, who shall have the same power as other Police Officers for twenty-four hours only, but without pay". these officials who were already in place. This measure was meant only to permit the activation of truly temporary special police for emergencies and so it was construed for almost eight years. Then n 1862 the discovery was made that, strictly construed, the statute effectually prevented the appointment of any other special police. On the Fifth of January 1854, Chief of Police Burke addressed a communication to the Board of Supervisors: "You are doubtless aware that the Board of Police Commissioners ... have been in the habit of appointing local or special officers, when requested to do so by citizens. The Commissioners find that the codified ordinances... do not authorize such appointments. It will be necessary, therefore, that, from and after this date, all power granted to different persons to act as special officers, be withdrawn... ."
The Chief pointed out his in-ability to police other than the central district of the city and pleaded for an immediate increase in the regular force; by inference, the loss of the services of the carious patrol specials would, in his view, make the situation critical. Eventually, the regular force rose in number though not sufficient to patrol the entire City.
In 1927, the Business and Professions Code came into effect. Section 7523 provided that local authorities may superimpose their own regulation of private street patrols upon those set up by the stature; Section 7522 provided for the licensing and regulation of private guards and patrols, except those individuals directly and individually employed by the person of firm guarded.
