(Testimony of Perdue William Lawrence)
Mr. Griffin.
back, and some of them that were alongside and to the rear of the President, to pull up alongside his car, and Chief Curry had some of these motorcycle officers that were supposed to be about a couple of blocks ahead of this motorcade, he asked them to drop back. He asked the lead motorcycles that were supposed to be a half block ahead of the escort--he asked them to drop back.
Mr. Griffin.
Well, is it fair to say that without specific instructions, that an officer would not watch the windows of buildings? He would not do it as a result of routine orders that prevail in the police department and his general training.
Captain Lawrence.
I would say in a case like this that an officer should do this and this should be part of his responsibility on the job, but I also have to say he was not given any specific instructions to do that as far as buildings were concerned, but I'm talking about the men assigned to this traffic assignment.
Mr. Griffin.
Are there any other specific instructions besides watching the windows of buildings that, as a result of your experience on November 22, you think should be given to police officers who have traffic assignments?
Captain Lawrence.
As a result of what happened on November 22, I believe that where a Head of State, the President of the United States, comes to Dallas and is in a motorcade or a parade, that the streets should be barricaded or roped off and that offices---more officers than were stationed be stationed along the route to control the crowd. I mean, of course, this is looking back--as I told you before----there were more people along the route in fact, I was surprised--they had even stopped their cars all along Stemmons Freeway.
Mr. Griffin.
Of course, we are trying to benefit from hindsight, when I asked you if in looking back you could make some suggestions for the future.
Captain Lawrence.
That's right.
Mr. Griffin.
Could a police force the size of the Dallas police force have found more officers to man the route?
Captain Lawrence.
With a route as long as this, I doubt that they could have, because some of these officers were given second and third assignments and this motorcade route, as long as it was, was in my opinion--this was too long of a motorcade route to give the proper security, and our department wasn't big enough to handle an event---of course, this is hindsight again--and an event like this with a route as long as this to cover all of the cross streets, because we certainly didn't cover all of the cross streets along the route except the downtown area. We covered some of the main ones and there were other streets that were not covered and the people themselves block the streets for the motorcade.
Mr. Griffin.
You have with you here a list of the assignments you made on November 22?
Captain Lawrence.
Yes; I do.
Mr. Griffin.
Could you give that to us so we can mark it for identification?
Captain Lawrence.
Yes, sir; would you mind me explaining a couple of them?
Mr. Griffin.
No; not at all, if you think it is necessary.
Captain Lawrence.
There were some changes made.
Mr. Griffin.
I am going to mark this as Capt. W. P. Lawrence Deposition, July 24, 1964, Exhibit No. 2. Do you want to indicate what clarification you would make in the assignments that are shown on Exhibit No. 2?
Captain Lawrence.
Yes; on the morning of November 22, the streets were still wet and it was raining that morning and I talked to Asst. Chief Batchelor about some of the motorcade assignments and he agreed with me that no car, no motorcycle officer, should pass the President's car, so we reassigned some officers indicated by asterisks on this detail to cover the Stemmons Freeway traffic lanes to the rear of the escort to prevent any vehicles from passing the presidential party, and that's shown on the detail. Also, as I say--you can see the asterisks here beside these officers and they were changed. Also, I felt that because of the curvature of Stemmons Freeway and these people coming over a crest and around a curve--that they would be on top of these motorcycle officers and would not have warning enough. I discussed placing a couple of
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