“How do you think you’re going to like the last-out shift in the Seventeenth District, Sergeant?” Wohl said.
Lenihan chuckled. “Go on in. He’s expecting you.”
Wohl pushed open the door to Chief Inspector Coughlin’s office. Coughlin’s desk, set catty-cornered, faced the anteroom. Coughlin was also in his shirtsleeves, and he was talking on the telephone. He smiled and motioned Wohl into one of the two chairs facing his desk.
“Hold it a minute,” he said into the telephone. He tucked it under his chin and searched through the HOLD basket on his desk. He came out with four sheets of teletype paper and handed them to Wohl. He smiled—rather smugly, Peter thought—at him, and then he resumed his telephone conversation.
The teletype messages had been passed over the Police Communications Network. There was a teletype machine in each of the twenty-two districts (in New York City, and many other cities, the term used for district police stations was “precinct”); in each Detective Division; and elsewhere.
Wohl read the first message.
GENERAL: 0650 06/30/73 FROM COMMISSIONER
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************CITY OF PHILADELPHIA************
*************POLICE DEPARTMENT*************
ANNOUNCEMENT WILL BE MADE AT ALL ROLL CALLS OF THE FOLLOWING COMMAND ASSIGNMENT: EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY CAPTAIN DAVID S. PETACH IS REASSIGNED FROM NARCOTICS BUREAU TO HIGHWAY PATROL AS COMMANDING OFFICER.
Well, there goes whatever small chance I had to plead Mike Sabara’s case. Now that it’s official, it’s too late to do anything about it.
He read the second message.
GENERAL: 0651 06/30/73 FROM COMMISSIONER
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************CITY OF PHILADELPHIA************
*************POLICE DEPARTMENT*************
THE FOLLOWING COMMAND REORGANIZATION WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT ALL ROLL CALLS: EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY A SPECIAL OPERATIONS DIVISION IS FORMED WITH HEADQUARTERS IN THE 7TH POLICE DISTRICT/HIGHWAY PATROL BUILDING. COMMANDING OFFICER SPECIAL OPERATIONS DIVISION WILL BE IMMEDIATELY SUBORDINATE TO THE COMMISSIONER, REPORTING THROUGH CHIEF INSPECTOR COUGHLIN. THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS DIVISION WILL CONSIST OF THE HIGHWAY PATROL, THE ANTI-CRIME TEAM (ACT) UNIT, AND SUCH OTHER UNITS AS MAY BE LATER ASSIGNE
D. THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS DIVISION HAS CITYWIDE JURISDICTION. SPECIAL OPERATIONS DIVISION MOTOR VEHICLES (EXCEPT HIGHWAY PATROL) ARE ASSIGNED RADIO CALL SIGNS S-100 THROUGH S-200, AND WILL USE THE PHONETIC PRONUNCIATION “SAM.”
The radio designator “Sam” was already in use, Wohl knew. Stakeout and the Bomb Squad used it. It was “Sam” rather than the military “Sugar” because the first time a Bomb Squad cop had gone on the air and identified himself as “S-Sugar Thirteen” the hoots of derision from his brother officers had been heard as far away as Atlantic City.
Special Operations had been given, he reasoned, the “Sam” designator because Special Operations, also “S” was going to be larger than “S” for Stakeout. So what were they going to use for Stakeout and the Bomb Squad? It would not work to have both using the same designator.
But that was a problem that could wait.
He read the third and fourth teletype messages.
GENERAL: 0652 06/30/73 FROM COMMISSIONER
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************CITY OF PHILADELPHIA************
*************POLICE DEPARTMENT*************
ANNOUNCEMENT WILL BE MADE AT ALL ROLL CALLS OF THE FOLLOWING COMMAND ASSIGNMENT: EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY STAFF INSPECTOR PETER F. WOHL IS REASSIGNED FROM INTERNAL AFFAIRS DIVISION TO SPECIAL OPERATIONS DIVISION AS COMMANDING OFFICER.
GENERAL: 0653 06/30/73 FROM COMMISSIONER
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