Gilroy
– A veteran Gilroy police officer is searching for pieces of the
department’s past.
Frank Bozzo says he wants to talk to anyone who has information
or an artifact that could provide a glimpse into Gilroy Police
Department history.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – A veteran Gilroy police officer is searching for pieces of the department’s past.
Frank Bozzo says he wants to talk to anyone who has information or an artifact that could provide a glimpse into Gilroy Police Department history.
Bozzo, who has been with the department 25 years, said his research on the GPD serves two purposes: One, he’s genuinely interested in Gilroy police history; and two, he wants to document that history for future generations, perhaps even to create a display for the new police station, to open in March 2006, as well as one for the Gilroy Historical Museum.
“I’m asking for anyone in the community that has anything in the form of information or history that we could use,” Bozzo said.
That includes the history and names of past officers, pictures of officers and equipment, or memorabilia and equipment itself.
“I’m running into issues where there’s not a lot of photographs, there’s not a lot of memorabilia for the department out there,” Bozzo said.
Bozzo said he started informally researching GPD’s past a few years ago, and with plans for a new station underway, department administrators asked him – along with Officer Pat Sullivan – to really look into the topic.
“I’m especially interested right now in the early 1860s to late 1930s and 40s, trying to receive information on who were the marshals, get photographs of badges, equipment of the day,” Bozzo said.
Gilroy Police Department as it is now was established in 1959, with the first chief, Jim Laizure, sworn in 1960. From the mid-1800s until 1959, the law was enforced by a marshal, with a deputy marshal and/or a constable, Bozzo said. The force in Gilroy really started to expand in the 1900s, particularly when traffic officers were needed as more people owned cars and the population grew.
Bozzo, who started with GPD as a police explorer in 1972 and served as a reserve officer before being hired full-time in 1980, said he will be verifying all the information he receives, but he needs a jumping-off point, first. He’s already been in touch with the museum, but has yet to research issues of The Dispatch dating back to 1968.
“The museum has been a great source of information, but their information is limited as well,” he said.
