George Bodeker

George Henry Bodeker, Jr (born May 26, 1865 – died December 29, 1931) was Chief of the Birmingham Police Department from about 1906 to 1914, a period when the position was elected at-large by city voters.

Bodeker's father, a German immigrant, was a veteran of the Mexican-American War, a "Detective of the Confederate States" involved in espionage during the Civil War, and a personal friend of Jefferson Davis.

Bodeker became chief about 1906 and was popular. He was re-elected handily over challenger Thomas Shirley in the 1910 municipal election. On November 18 of that year Bodeker corresponded with Booker T. Washington regarding race, crime and prohibition:

Sir: Yours of November 16th arrived, and in reply beg to advise you that it would be impossible for me to give you the exact figures of crimes committed by the colored people, however, I wish to say that the Prohibition Law as I see it has not benefited the white people or the negroes, as Prohibition is a farce wherever it has been tried. I do not see any difference relative to crimes committed by either race. Respectfully, Geo. H. Bodeker, Chief of Police.

His correspondence seems somewhat at odds with his public support for Mayor A. O. Lane's calls for regulation of saloons and his statement that "the negro vagrants cause more trouble in a city than all other criminal classes combined".

In 1911 Bodeker submitted a proposed bill to the Alabama Legislature that would remove the office of police chief from political vagaries by making it a permanent position, subject only to a court finding of bad behavior or inefficiency. As Chief, Bodeker gave rising judicial star Hugo Black a gold watch on his October 22, 1912 retirement from the Birmingham Police Court.

In 1914, Bodeker ran for the office of Jefferson County Sheriff. He was removed from office at the start of the campaign by Commissioner George Ward amid charges that he had accepted bribes from bordellos and gambling houses. Instead he founded Bodeker's National Detective Agency with offices in the Brown-Marx Building and branches in Charlotte, North Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Jacksonville, Florida; Montgomery and Mobile.

Preceded by: W. E. Weir

Chief of Birmingham Police Department 1906–1914

Succeeded by: Martin Eagan

References

• Fell, Charles (1908) "Chief Bodeker's father has eventful career as Confederate Detective." Birmingham News
• Suitts, Steve (2005) Hugo Black of Alabama: How His Roots and Early Career Shaped the Great Champion of the Constitution Montgomery:NewSouth Books. ISBN 1588381447