Former Santa Ana Police Chief Allen Dies : Law Enforcement: Longtime officer became a critic of court practices and was jailed once in connection with an anti-abortion protest.

Edward J. Allen, who was Santa Ana police chief for 17 years and who in his later years turned to being an anti-abortion activist, died at 81 on Saturday after suffering a heart attack. He had been hospitalized for treatment of pneumonia at St. Joseph Hospital since Dec. 28.

Throughout his career, Allen was a stern proponent of tough law enforcement and was an outspoken critic of plea bargaining and what he called permissiveness in the courts. He also urged that police be trained in human relations work to meet the demands of the 1960s.

He came from a family of law enforcement officers from Erie, Pa. His father was president of the National Fraternal Order of Police. His brother was an Erie patrolman, and it was in Erie that Allen began his law enforcement career in 1936.

In 1941, he was assigned on loan to the Erie office of the FBI to assist agents in World War II investigations dealing with sabotage, espionage and subversion. He was accepted for training at the FBI National Academy, a special school for police officers, and graduated in 1947.

The following year he was named chief of the Police Department in Youngstown, Ohio. The city, corrupted by Mafia influence from nearby Detroit and Buffalo, N.Y., was crowded with gamblers, prostitutes, gangsters and crooked police and politicians.

Taking his lead from a newly elected reform mayor, Allen cleaned up the ranks of the Police Department, cracked down on gambling and prostitution and forced politicians to sever their gangster ties.

In 1954, he was appointed enforcement chief for the Ohio Liquor Control Department. He retained that post until 1955, when he was hired as police chief in Santa Ana because of his nationwide reputation as a Mafia-fighting police chief while at Youngstown.

In 1962, Allen’s book, “Merchants of Menace: The Mafia” was published and was described as an authoritative effort to explain organized crime. Allen also wrote poetry, although it was unpublished.

Meanwhile, he concentrated his efforts on reshaping the Santa Ana Police Department, where internal controversy brewed and exploded in 1965 with charges, including Allen’s, that some police officers belonging to the John Birch Society were attempting to force his resignation.

Several firings, a couple of lawsuits and a nearly successful attempt to fire the chief followed, but the matter faded with time.

After his retirement in 1972, he remained deeply religious and regularly attended St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. He became a spokesman for the anti-abortion forces. In 1984, Allen and another man were convicted of trespassing at the Cypress Family Planning Assn. Medical Group.

Both had been involved in an anti-abortion demonstration with about 100 others. All the demonstrators except Allen and his co-defendant remained outside the clinic’s doors.

In 1986, Allen was sentenced to 120 days in Orange County Jail but was released two weeks later after his attorney argued successfully that Allen should remain free pending appeal.

He is survived by his wife, Dorothy, a son and a daughter.

Family members said that a vigil will be held at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church Monday night. The funeral will take place after a Mass on Tuesday morning. Allen will be buried at the Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange.