O.W. Wilson was born in 1902 in South Dakota. His family moved to Berkeley, California, where he enrolled at the University of California and completed his degree in criminology in 1924. In order to pay his tuition, Wilson took a job as a patrolman with the Berkeley Police Department under Chief August Vollmer, also a professor at the university. Wilson became Vollmer's protege and most influential student. After his graduation from Berkeley, Wilson became chief of police in Fullerton, California, on Vollmer's recommendation. From 1928 to 1939, Wilson served as chief of police in Wichita, Kansas. In World War II, Wilson was a colonel and chief public safety officer in Italy, England, and Germany from 1943 to 1947. Wilson also taught as a professor of police administration, like his mentor Vollmer, at Berkeley from 1939 to 1960. Wilson was dean at Berkeley from 1950 to 1960. From 1960 to 1967 he became a reform-minded superintendent of the Chicago Police...