Marrion L. Baker

Did you take a course of instruction for the police department?

Yes, sir; I went to the Dallas Police Academy School out there.

How long was this schooling period, approximately?

Four months.

After you were graduated from the Dallas Police Academy, did you right away become a motorcycle policeman or were you first a patrolman or what did you do?

No, sir; at first I was a patrolman and I spent some 23 months in radio patrol division. And then I volunteered solo division.

When you were in this radio car, was this a patrol car where two men would be--

That is right, sir.

And have you been a motorcycle policeman then, say, for the last 7 or 8 years?

Yes, sir; that is pretty close to it.

(At this point, Representative Ford left the hearing room.)


By the way, you use the word solo; generally do people in police cars ride in pairs during the daytime or solos or what?

If you are talking about the squad cars at the time that I worked in the radio patrol division, most of them were two-men squads.

Were there some one-man squads, too?

Very few.

What about today, do you know what the situation is?

They still have, say, very few two-men squads and a lot of one-man squads now.

They have a lot of one-man squads now?

Yes, sir.

Is that because of a shortage of men for the jobs to cover?

Yes, sir.

Not because of the procedures?

Now, at night they try to ride them two men.

In the daytime what is the situation now?

Usually the downtown squads which I work are two men, and the outlying squads are one man.

All right.
Coming down to November 22, 1963, what was your occupation on that day?

I was assigned to ride a motorcycle.

And where were you assigned to ride the motorcycle?