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In his inaugural address in August 1849, John Geary, the first elected alcalde (mayor/judge) in Gold Rush San Francisco, reminded the newly elected council that the town was "without a single policeman…. [or] the means of confining a prisoner for an hour."
On August 13 the council selected Malachi Fallon as San Francisco's first Captain (Chief) of Police. Fallon in turn appointed a deputy captain, three sergeants and 30 officers to comprise the first regular municipal police department in American San Francisco.
The city's first Chief of Police was born in County Athlone, Ireland in 1814 and moved as a young boy to New York City with his family. As a young man, Fallon ran a saloon frequented by politicians and served for a time as keeper at the Tombs Prison. When the gold mania seized the Atlantic States in late 1848, Fallon headed for California where he opened a store in Jamestown. In July 1849 he returned to San Francisco on business where, he later wrote, "There were on Trial some persons for Rioting. The merchants of the town, having heard of my former connections with Police matters, called to see me and offered inducements to remain and organize a police. The council met and appointed me Chief of Police at a salary of six thousand dollars a year, to have the whole control of appointments and Asst… three sergeants and 30 men."
The motley little group of officers in 1849 had no training, no uniforms or equipment of any kind, or even an office, from which to conduct police operations. To accommodate the housing problem, Chief Fallon housed his men at first in the pre-gold rush schoolhouse on Portsmouth Square.
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