Law enforcement is high-tech these days. Looking back at the early days of police work in the Twin Cities, it’s a different story.

When the Lewiston Police Department was founded in 1858, it was a three-man force assigned to “night watch.” Each man was paid $1 a night, and it was another nine years before uniforms and badges were provided.

A new police lockup was built and the department’s first handcuffs and revolvers were purchased in 1873, according to a history titled “Behind the Badge” written by Detective Paul Harmon for the LPD Web site. A mounted patrol was tried in 1880, but that operation lasted only a short time, Harmon said. A patrol wagon was proposed and put into service in 1891.

The Auburn Police Department began in 1869, which was about the same time Auburn became a city, according to the APD Web site.

At first, the department had two police officers on night patrol. It was 10 years after the inauguration of Lewiston’s force, but pay for the Auburn officers was twice as much. They received $2 per night.

In 1872, a third officer was added to the Auburn Police Department. Two of them worked days and one had the night shift. A fourth officer was hired by Auburn in 1887, and in 1894 the first female police officer was hired.

A significant step toward what might be considered modernization came in 1984 when Lewiston installed a police telegraph system. Before then, a patrolman was on his own as he covered his beat. Installation of the Gamewell system, a widely used brand, allowed officers to “pull” a call box every half hour, providing a vital communication link with headquarters.

Variations of the Gamewell system were used here into the 1980s for police and fire department alarms.

The Lewiston department bought its first automobile in 1915 or 1916, Harmon’s history said. It bought a second car and a motorcycle in 1920.

The LPD got its own radio system in 1940, with fingerprint and photography equipment added five years later.

The Lewiston Web site also has some examples of the lesser offenses that might have landed you in jail not long after the Civil War.

In 1869, police apprehended “a real violent law breaker” and charged that person with plucking flowers in Riverside Cemetery.

There’s also mention that year of three people arrested for bathing in the river, and, in 1877, four perpetrators were taken into custody “for the vile offense of entering fruit gardens.”

There were three arrests in 1889 for illegal voting and one arrest in 1905 for fraudulently voting at a caucus.

Over the years, Harmon said, “Folks kept going to jail for such things as breaking windows, selling cigarettes to persons under 16, disturbing a religious meeting, spilling liquor, and for heavens sakes, exhibiting prize fight pictures.”

He said two persons were arrested in 1888 for playing ball, and in 1922, four were arrested for playing ball in the street.

For decades, so-called “blue laws” that regulated Sunday activities have been matters of curiosity, and often heated debate, to many people.

Sometimes a simple incident underscores the fine line between telling an amusing historical story and making light of something that’s serious and important to many people.

One story on the LPD Web site recalls the days when a game of marbles was a daily pastime for youngsters. You scratched a circle in the dirt and picked that special shooter from your cherished bag of marbles.

“A good way to spend a summer Sunday afternoon. Right? Not in 1868,” the Web site story relates. “The annual report submitted by the Lewiston Police Department for that year shows that two persons were arrested for playing marbles on Sunday.”

There was also occasional documentation of violations such as desecration of the Sabbath, gambling on a Sunday, Sabbath breaking, and gunning on the Sabbath.

In 1880, there was an arrest for throwing snowballs on a Sunday. That same year there were arrests for keeping an open shop on Sunday, card playing on Sunday and working on the Lord’s Day.

It was incorrect then, as it is now, to ridicule any religious group’s belief in the sanctity of the Sabbath. Nevertheless, we can look at incidents of long ago and recognize how we continue to wrestle with the legal, social and religious differences in our communities.

Dave Sargent is a freelance writer and an Auburn native. You can e-mail him at [email protected].