Abstract Following the end of the Great War in November 1918, fears of a nationwide crime wave spread through American newspapers. As East Coast and Midwestern cities struggled to suppress waves of crime, Los Angeles County appeared immune. But by fall 1919, Los Angeles (LA) County press and police officials admitted that the region was experiencing a wave. To break the wave, LA County police departments, especially in Los Angeles and Long Beach, expanded their officer pools, created new specialized squads, and embarked on arrest-heavy campaigns while city governments imposed strict curfews. Newspaper crime wave reporting provided the foundation for these expansions of police power, often in contradiction to reported crime statistics, and despite endemic police corruption.
Stephen Bohigian (Tue,) studied this question.