Florida: Messiah in Open Town

(2 of 2)

A Michigan farm boy who still looks the part, Purdy has been a cop almost since childhood. "I can't remember ever wanting to be anything else," he says. At twelve, while working as a part-time school janitor, he helped catch two adult coal thieves. When he went to Michigan State to study police administration, his parents exploded: "Why do you want to go to college to be a dumb cop?" He answered, in effect, that the course would make him a smart cop. During World War II, he served as a military-police officer in the Pacific, later was an FBI agent in New York and Florida, went on to become chief of the St. Petersburg force, then headed Pennsylvania's state police for three years.

Political Pressure. "Our enforcement policy is simple," he has always maintained. "Was a law violated, and was this the guy who did it?" In Pennsylvania's Allegheny County, there had been one gambling arrest the year before Purdy took over; there were 1 ,000 in his last two years there. But his term in Pennsylvania ended in a nonstop hassle with the legislature that began when he refused to fix a legislator's traffic ticket and ended in a controversy over wiretapping. He resigned in 1966, charging that political pressure had been exerted on his office. Governor William Scranton agreed: "The worst kind of politics has won a battle for the lawless element in our society." But Purdy has had little trouble in dealing with fellow law-enforcement officials at all levels. He has restored Dade's liaison with other local police departments and the FBI. Equally important, he has established a sound working relationship with the Miami municipal force. With no friction, his men and the Miami police share jurisdiction in the city.

A strict teetotaler with a tame social life restricted largely to bridge, golf and movies, Purdy imposes strict moral and professional standards on his men. Last week he fired two officers suspected of taking favors from bail bondsmen. A policeman "involved with women, liquor and gambling can't do an effective job," he insists. Neither can a dumb cop. Purdy has made in-service training mandatory for veteran officers and has broadened the existing 14-week course for recruits to include courses in sociology and community relations. He also requires that supervisory personnel take extended training at the FBI National Academy or similar schools.

Purdy is now seeking a 25% boost in the department's $8.6 million budget that would increase the 1,101-man force by 223 and raise salaries. Part of the expansion would provide for a planning-and-research unit to map long-range improvements. Purdy, who is not given to spouting grandiose designs, says that all he wants for Dade County is a "damn good" department, which he defines as "the best trained, best equipped, most efficient and most honest anywhere."