The Wild West Street Brawl Between Two Police Chiefs
A power struggle in Tacoma turned into a street-side standoff, forcing residents to choose sides as two men claimed the title of Chief of Police.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The conflict of authority between the two Chiefs of Police resulted in a scene on the streets last night when Chief Fuller arrested Chief McKay. Last evening, a messenger from the steamer Emma Hayward notified McKay that Captain Green wanted three men arrested, suspected of stealing a watch. McKay arrested and locked up the men in the city jail. Fuller heard of it, drove over, saw McKay, jumped out of his buggy, and demanded that the prisoners be turned over to the County Sheriff. McKay refused. Some hot words passed between the two, and Fuller finally called upon Officers States and Marpole and arrested McKay. On the way to jail, McKay resisted violently but finally consented to go quietly. He said, however, that he would like to see his attorney. Fuller started to accompany him and met Mayor Town and Deputy Sheriff Whyte. A conference was held on the sidewalk, while an immense crowd gathered. Fuller said that he was Chief and would exercise the authority if Mount Hood had to be arrested. McKay said he would do the same if he had to tackle Mount Tacoma. He still held the keys to the lockup and refused to give them up, and declared that he could not be arrested. Finally, McKay, Fuller, and Whyte adjourned to City Attorney Carroll’s office, where, after a long conference, the matter was adjusted by McKay agreeing to turn over the prisoners to Deputy Sheriff Whyte, as theirs was a Territorial offense. McKay was not locked up. The matter created intense excitement on the streets.
“Fuller said that he was Chief and would exercise the authority if Mount Hood had to be arrested. McKay said he would do the same if he had to tackle Mount Tacoma.”
Public governance crises, while rarely resulting in dueling police chiefs on the sidewalk, remain a staple of civic tension. The spectacle of competing authorities—a common symptom of territorial growing pains in 1887—finds a modern rhyme in the complex, sometimes overlapping, layers of jurisdictional disputes and bureaucratic gridlock in today’s Puget Sound region.
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