Robert B. Powers, a turn-of-the century railroad detective and self-educated philosopher, joined the Bakersfield Police Department in 1928 and became police chief in 1933.

He is credited, according to an unofficial history of the law enforcement agency, with cleaning up much of the city’s vice. But, as Powers told a researcher from UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library in 1971, taming vice in Bakersfield involved more than just arresting its purveyors. It meant dealing with business leaders and elected officials who benefited from barely restrained illegal gambling and prostitution and saw an aggressive police department as an impediment to healthy commerce.

Robert Price is a three-time Emmy award-winning reporter for KGET-TV. Reach him at rprice661@gmail.com or via X, formerly Twitter: @stubblebuzz. The opinions expressed here are his own.