Vollmer, August

Vollmer, August

(1876–1955) criminologist; born in New Orleans. After service in the Spanish-American War, he became the chief of police in Berkeley, Calif. (1905–32). He reorganized the police department of San Diego (1917) and Los Angeles (1923–24) and established professional police administrations at the Universities of Chicago and California. He wrote The Criminal (1949), Crime and the State Police, and other books.