The night relief Detective Division of the Portland Bureau of Police, 1948.
City of Portland (OR) Archives, A2004-002.3776.
Bureau of Police, 1948
Vintage Portland
The night relief Detective Division of the Portland Bureau of Police, 1948.
City of Portland (OR) Archives, A2004-002.3776.
Vintage Portland 
The guy on the left is a giant. He is standing in the street and still appears taller than anyone on the sidewalk.
If you look at the photo in efiles it has all of the names of the people except the woman who is simply identified as ” woman Asian”
Hi, Mike — I just looked at the efiles copy; the woman is Hattie Yamada. I double-checked that Hattie was a woman by going to the Historical Oregonian where “Miss Hattie Yamada” appears numerous times in relative lists in obituaries. What you saw was the tags for the photo, “Japanes [sic] ; Women ; Asian” (similar to the way this post is tagged Oregon, Portland, Portland Police Bureau)
The detective division had a busy time during the Vanport Flood in 1948. “VALIANT EFFORTS OF LAW OFFICERS, OTHER GROUPS CUT TOLL: About 70 men of the detective division are in the front lines of the flood, stationed in two-way radio cars on the dikes providing communications for the military and other agencies on the front lines.” — Oregonian, June 6, 1948 p. 21
I agree with Chris, The guy on the left is a big one. Wouldn’t want to tangle with him. Or be on anyone of these men’s bad side. This is a cool photo.
If the efiles names start and go left to right from the front row William D Browne was the Captain of the Detective Division. William Brown was born in Spokane Wa, in 1897, and became a Portland Police Officer in 1924. William D Browne’s 1942 selective service draft registration card shows he was 6′ 41/2″ tall and weighed 245 lbs. The 1940 selective service act of 1940 required all men between 18-64 to register.
I love how you can tell who is right handed and left handed, at least in the donning of the hat sense.
Interesting times, when Portland was mobbed up and “Big” Jim Elkins ran the vice interests. Mayor Riley was on the take; Dorothy McCullough “No Sin” Lee had been elected to clean up the town but had not taken office. How many of these detectives were on the take?
Times have changed for the better. A similar picture today would have many women and much more diversity.
I don’t see a Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle anywhere in this group; no one is wearing a pork pie hat.
So many “Dicks” in that photo.