Pictured: The guard house pictured here was the third one located on the grounds of the Benicia Arsenal. There is a popular story that future president of the United States Ulysses S. Grant was briefly incarcerated in the first guard house in 1852 for a minor infraction of military regulations. This myth has been around since the turn of the last century, but has since been debunked.
William Townsend Stanford (1867-1964) was named Vallejo's first Chief of Police on April 4th, 1900. He was a Mare Island Naval Shipyard mechanic with no prior law enforcement experience. He continued to serve as Chief of Police until his retirement in 1936. Photo courtesy of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum.