Madera’s top cop had a forgiving heart

For The Madera Tribune

Madera Police Chief Walter Thomas was in a playful mood. He wasn’t quite so jovial a few months later when the City demoted him to Assistant Chief.

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There are times in the history of a town when some things just do not make sense. Every once in a while a city’s leaders take off in a direction that defies logic. Such was the case in 1950, when the Madera City Council wanted to shake up the police department. The councilmen shook it up all right, but in the process, they ended up on the short end of the stick.

Walter Thomas was the Chief of Police in Madera in 1950. He had been the Chief for about 20 years, and folks were proud of him. In fact, in September of 1950, he had been featured on the front page of the Madera Tribune as one of the city’s outstanding citizens. By all accounts, Thomas was secure in his position at the helm of Madera’s law enforcement.

Something, however, was cooking in the back room of City Hall. Someone was making a case for streamlining the police department. It was being argued that the department needed to be modernized, reorganized, and its officers “trained in the latest methods of (law enforcement) operation.”