A. Hohmann, Reformer of LAPD, Dies

Arthur C. Hohmann, the lantern-jawed Marine veteran who reshaped and reformed Los Angeles’ scandal-ridden Police Department in 1939 yet fell from grace and was demoted only two years later, has died in Mariposa, it was learned Thursday.

Hohmann was 89 when his car rolled into a ditch as he was on his way to visit friends. News of his death April 9 went unreported.

When he retired in 1960, after 35 years of service with the department, it was as deputy chief in charge of the unheralded technical services bureau. It was a quiet end to a tumultuous career in which, as chief, Hohmann:

- In a single two-day period in 1939 abolished 398 acting Police Department positions and promoted, demoted or transferred nearly 500 other officers.

- Restructured the city’s 14 patrol divisions into six in a move he said was patterned after a military staff operation.

- Abolished the city’s vice squad, forming instead a task force of 18 men who drove around the city ferreting out gambling and promising to “lead the raids myself” if that effort failed.

- Wanted to fingerprint and photograph every citizen of Los Angeles to expedite the arresting process.

‘Few Faulty Shingles’

Although known as a stickler for discipline, he eventually became much admired by his officers. But the wide swath he cut finally resulted in city officials demanding his ouster, one even saying publicly that “we are not going to tear down the whole house to repair a few faulty shingles.”

The “house” that Hohmann was named to reconstruct in 1939 was sadly in need of repair.

Mayor Fletcher Bowron had been elected in 1938 after the recall of Frank Shaw, who was charged with turning his back on widespread gambling and graft throughout the city. Although Bowron soon turned on Hohmann, he originally supported his appointment, saying he personally was aware of widespread graft within the Police Department and urging Hohmann to end it.

Hohmann, the city’s 39th chief in 60 years, did not wait long. The new chief, who drew up the department’s first manual of operations when he was a lieutenant in the early 1930s, replaced the 14 captains then in charge of the city’s precincts with three hand-picked associates, two of whom had finished just behind him in the competitive examination for chief. He began a plan to rotate all department personnel each 90 days to prevent graft from flourishing and once even proposed to outlaw hitchhiking as a means of fighting crime.

He brought detectives from outlying areas into central headquarters, where he could better monitor their investigations, and promoted what many said were inexperienced officers in an effort to bring new blood to top positions.

And by early 1941 he was in trouble politically.

Private Investigation

Bowron had hired a Chicago investigator to conduct his own probe of the city and, according to a grand jury transcript, the investigator, Wallace N. Jamie, had tapped telephones and made illegal recordings of conversations. Jamie was on Hohmann’s payroll at $625 a month plus expenses and Hohmann said publicly that he did not appreciate it.

“Hohmann was a stickler for discipline, a guy who wanted things done right,” said Norman Jacoby, a veteran police reporter of that era. “Bowron wanted things done, but he wanted them done his way.”

By June, 1941, Bowron, encouraged by many of his City Hall aides, had succeeded in ousting Hohmann; he was replaced by Clemence B. Horrall, who retired in 1949.

Hohmann originally was demoted to his old rank of lieutenant but won a court fight for reinstatement as deputy chief. He was sent to technical services in 1945, and newspaper clippings over the years occasionally referred to him as the department’s “forgotten man.”

His survivors include two sons, Robert and William.