The information our interviewees provided us with is invaluable towards the argument we intend to make.
Author of Eliot Ness: The Rise And Fall of an American Hero : Douglas Perry
Email interview - "Q: How do you think the actions of Eliot Ness at that time impact our society today?
A: With the Untouchables and especially as the safety director in Cleveland, Ness embraced technology and science in his work, while most of his colleagues didn't. He helped pioneer the law-enforcement use of wire tapping, ballistics and various other disciplines. He was the first police chief to focus on traffic safety by studying road conditions and neighborhood layouts, thus saving many lives. These changes would have come about without Ness but probably years later. He also professionalized the Cleveland police force, creating a police academy and a new civil-service system, and actively recruiting college graduates. Other police departments, seeing the success in Cleveland, soon followed suit. Before, policing was largely a profession that one took up because your father did it or your ethnic group dominated the police force. Before police academies, new officers learned on the job, with no training at all before putting on a badge and gun.
Q: What do you think has changed since Eliot Ness?
A: Much of what Ness pioneered during his law-enforcement career became the norm in the years that followed. Of course, policing has become more complex. He moved the Cleveland police force from a beat-walking focus to a car-route system linked to a centralized radio room. This increased efficiency and the police's reach. But over time it also made the police less a part of the communities they served -- they didn't get to know people in the same way they did when they walked a beat. Thus, about two decades ago, many police departments started returning officers to the streets -- on foot. As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Q: As a citizen, what values do you think that law enforcement agencies should hold dear, especially regarding corruption?
A: The values law enforcement should consider most important are honesty, decency and integrity. Police officers used to owe their jobs to political patronage, and corruption was commonplace. Ness was known for his integrity -- hence the name of his Prohibition unit, The Untouchables. His team couldn't be bought off by the Mob. With the professionalization of police departments, officers began to take more pride in their duties and their service to the community, and corruption became less prevalent. Ness had something to do with that."
A: With the Untouchables and especially as the safety director in Cleveland, Ness embraced technology and science in his work, while most of his colleagues didn't. He helped pioneer the law-enforcement use of wire tapping, ballistics and various other disciplines. He was the first police chief to focus on traffic safety by studying road conditions and neighborhood layouts, thus saving many lives. These changes would have come about without Ness but probably years later. He also professionalized the Cleveland police force, creating a police academy and a new civil-service system, and actively recruiting college graduates. Other police departments, seeing the success in Cleveland, soon followed suit. Before, policing was largely a profession that one took up because your father did it or your ethnic group dominated the police force. Before police academies, new officers learned on the job, with no training at all before putting on a badge and gun.
Q: What do you think has changed since Eliot Ness?
A: Much of what Ness pioneered during his law-enforcement career became the norm in the years that followed. Of course, policing has become more complex. He moved the Cleveland police force from a beat-walking focus to a car-route system linked to a centralized radio room. This increased efficiency and the police's reach. But over time it also made the police less a part of the communities they served -- they didn't get to know people in the same way they did when they walked a beat. Thus, about two decades ago, many police departments started returning officers to the streets -- on foot. As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Q: As a citizen, what values do you think that law enforcement agencies should hold dear, especially regarding corruption?
A: The values law enforcement should consider most important are honesty, decency and integrity. Police officers used to owe their jobs to political patronage, and corruption was commonplace. Ness was known for his integrity -- hence the name of his Prohibition unit, The Untouchables. His team couldn't be bought off by the Mob. With the professionalization of police departments, officers began to take more pride in their duties and their service to the community, and corruption became less prevalent. Ness had something to do with that."
Assistant Manager of the American Prohibition Museum: Caitlin Hamilton
Email interview - "Q: How do you think the actions of Eliot Ness at that time impact our society today?
A: Ness was among the first group of people in law enforcement to formally combat organized crime in America. As Prohibition wore on, the threat of organized crime grew, especially in cities like Chicago. As the Assistant Special Agent in Charge in Chicago, he was partially responsible for a lot of ground-breaking law enforcement. He was known for a more evidence-seeking investigation style, known then as "scientific policing". This was before anything like DNA was available, but Ness pioneered the idea behind the thorough evidence gathering our law enforcement does now. He is directly responsible for cleaning up the crime and corruption that was rampant in Cleveland and Cincinnati during his time. Now he is a symbol of the incorruptible integrity that our law enforcement prides itself on today.
Q: What do you think has changed since Eliot Ness?
A: Ness's vision was of a professionally trained police force where corruption had no place. Today, that is our national standard. In Cleveland he instituted a rigorous hiring process, involving a civil service test, fingerprinting, and background checks, all of which our police force undergoes today. Today we have the FBI, which is responsible for fighting organized crime, rather than a hand-picked task force.
Q: As a citizen, what values do you think that law enforcement agencies should hold dear, especially regarding corruption?
A: Law enforcement is meant to protect the people it serves with honesty, integrity, and ethics. These three things are important to uphold, because if just one of them slips we become susceptible to corruption and become no better than the crime we stand against.
Q: What resources/information can you provide us with about the famous Eliot Ness press conference?
A: In response to one of his men being offered $2000 a week to stop interfering with Al Capone's operations, Ness called a press conference to publicly announce that none of his men could be bought, leading the Chicago Tribune to nickname the group "The Untouchables". Unfortunately I have not been able to access the original article that covered this press conference for your reference.
Q: How do you think Eliot Ness as a person has affected his actions?
A: Ness was rumored to suffer from depression throughout his life and was always an incredibly driven person. Even as successful as he was he always searched for ways that he could improve. The youngest of five children by ten years, he had been born to his Norwegian immigrant parents very late in their lives. His mother was overly attentive and very important to him. She was devoutly religious and instilled a unwavering sense of honesty in him. His father was in his 50s when Eliot was born and mostly focused on the bakery the family owned. Eliot learned to keep his emotions in check around his father, which made him even keeled, and his father's lack of attention to him made him want to perform well at everything he did to win his father's approval.
Q: What were Ness's views on the corruption/bribes that were present in the Prohibition Bureau?
A: Ness was appalled by the corruption and bribe-taking that he saw from other enforcement officers and his group of Untouchables was formed specifically to combat the problem of corruption within the Bureau. They were hand-chosen by him as men that he respected and trusted to uphold their assignment with honesty and dedication."
A: Ness was among the first group of people in law enforcement to formally combat organized crime in America. As Prohibition wore on, the threat of organized crime grew, especially in cities like Chicago. As the Assistant Special Agent in Charge in Chicago, he was partially responsible for a lot of ground-breaking law enforcement. He was known for a more evidence-seeking investigation style, known then as "scientific policing". This was before anything like DNA was available, but Ness pioneered the idea behind the thorough evidence gathering our law enforcement does now. He is directly responsible for cleaning up the crime and corruption that was rampant in Cleveland and Cincinnati during his time. Now he is a symbol of the incorruptible integrity that our law enforcement prides itself on today.
Q: What do you think has changed since Eliot Ness?
A: Ness's vision was of a professionally trained police force where corruption had no place. Today, that is our national standard. In Cleveland he instituted a rigorous hiring process, involving a civil service test, fingerprinting, and background checks, all of which our police force undergoes today. Today we have the FBI, which is responsible for fighting organized crime, rather than a hand-picked task force.
Q: As a citizen, what values do you think that law enforcement agencies should hold dear, especially regarding corruption?
A: Law enforcement is meant to protect the people it serves with honesty, integrity, and ethics. These three things are important to uphold, because if just one of them slips we become susceptible to corruption and become no better than the crime we stand against.
Q: What resources/information can you provide us with about the famous Eliot Ness press conference?
A: In response to one of his men being offered $2000 a week to stop interfering with Al Capone's operations, Ness called a press conference to publicly announce that none of his men could be bought, leading the Chicago Tribune to nickname the group "The Untouchables". Unfortunately I have not been able to access the original article that covered this press conference for your reference.
Q: How do you think Eliot Ness as a person has affected his actions?
A: Ness was rumored to suffer from depression throughout his life and was always an incredibly driven person. Even as successful as he was he always searched for ways that he could improve. The youngest of five children by ten years, he had been born to his Norwegian immigrant parents very late in their lives. His mother was overly attentive and very important to him. She was devoutly religious and instilled a unwavering sense of honesty in him. His father was in his 50s when Eliot was born and mostly focused on the bakery the family owned. Eliot learned to keep his emotions in check around his father, which made him even keeled, and his father's lack of attention to him made him want to perform well at everything he did to win his father's approval.
Q: What were Ness's views on the corruption/bribes that were present in the Prohibition Bureau?
A: Ness was appalled by the corruption and bribe-taking that he saw from other enforcement officers and his group of Untouchables was formed specifically to combat the problem of corruption within the Bureau. They were hand-chosen by him as men that he respected and trusted to uphold their assignment with honesty and dedication."