Thomas Oriani was a police Washington DC Patrolman from August 1, 1888 through June 30, 1931. A photocopy of a photocopy of his policy record is in the family history I’m documenting, and it is interesting enough that I thought I’d share it with you.
Items of note:
- It took him four years to get promoted to Class Two. Later that year in the line of duty, he shot and killed a man; the case was ignored by the Grand Jury.
- Every few years he received various reprimands which are guessed to be minor complaints from citizens that he was either not on his corner, off in a pub, and so on.
- He was commended for various reasons: Services rendered makes sense, but I’m not sure what is indicated by his commmendation for ‘attention to Moving Picture Films’ in 1915.
- In 1920 he was transfered to prisoner transport. He was injured a handful of times, twice struck by automobiles, once by an escaping prisoner.
- One off the car accidents is listed as occurring at the intersection of 14th St. NW and Irving. My Columbia Heights apartment was two blocks from his incident at 16th and Euclid NW.
- In his finaly year - 1931, he and another officer were reprimanded for allowing a prisoner to escape.
- His retirement paycheck was a princely $100, paid monthly.
Check out [the orignal, I scanned it to pdf](/files/Thomas-Oriani-WDC-Police-
Record-1888-1931.pdf). This picture above is from the Library of
Congress.
