James McLaughlin
Captain of Police 1897-1901

   Captain McLaughlin was born August 16, 1843 in Drumshambo, County Leitram, Ireland. At the age of seven he came to the U.S. with friends, and grew up in Norwalk Conn. On April 1, 1865, McLaughlin joined the N.Y.C. Metropolitan Police Dept. and was assigned to their 7th patrol Pct. On August 10, 1866, he was directed to join a fourteen-officer detail with orders to patrol the Village of Yonkers as part of a substation of the N.Y. 32nd Pct. His most frequent post was in Getty Square. When Yonkers established its own department on April 10, 1871, McLaughlin chose to remain in Yonkers. He was appointed a Roundsman on April 29, 1871, and on December 22, 1881 he was promoted to Sergeant due to the death of Sgt. Austin. Upon the demise of Capt. Mangin, McLaughlin was promoted to "Captain of Police" on July 30, 1897.

   Succeeding our first leader, Capt. John Mangin, was a formidable challenge, Capt. McLaughlin was a stem disciplinarian and did his best to serve our community. However, it was not long before the two politically opposite newspapers argued about the Captain's leadership abilities. As a result, on August 17, 1901, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60 years, the Captain was forced to retire. He fought his forced retirement in the courts but eventually lost his appeal.

   Capt. James McLaughlin, who had served so long and honorably, and along the way raised 12 children, had seen his department grow from 14 men to about 300 prior to his death. On January 24, 1930, Capt. McLaughlin died at the age of 87 years. With his death, the last remaining link between a modern day police department and the original force of fourteen who came here to establish the first organized policing in the city was broken.