Ohio to honor 2 Warren officers

By Tim Yovich

Police are setting sights on two of their own being honored on the National Law Enforcement Memorial.

WARREN — The names of two former Warren Police Department members will be placed on the Ohio Peace Officers Memorial in London, Ohio, during a May 1 ceremony.

Those being honored for their sacrifices are former Police Chief Frank F. Flowers, who died in a car crash April 3, 1919; and Patrolman Irving Baker, who died Jan. 6, 1933, of injuries suffered while making an arrest.

Their names were inscribed on the Warren Police Memorial in 2006.

Their names were submitted last year by the Fraternal Order of Police Local 34, the officers union, to Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann.

“We worked hard and long researching these brave men’s deaths and are deeply moved that they will be added to the thousands of police officers in the state of Ohio that have given the ultimate sacrifice to their departments and its citizens,” said Patrol Officer Brian E. Crites, Local 34 president.

Crites said several officers will be sent to the ceremony as the names of Flowers and Baker are added to the memorial wall located on the grounds of the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy.

Crites said the Ohio Peace Officers Memorial board is looking for the names and addresses of the fallen officers’ relatives so they can be invited to the May 1 event. Relatives are asked to contact Crites at the police department at (330) 841-2505.

Also, the lodge president said, efforts are being made to get the names of Flowers and Baker on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Flowers, 51, was killed when his car collided with a streetcar. The impact threw Flowers out of the car and onto the ground, breaking his neck. Flowers was a 25-year veteran of the police department.

Baker died while subduing a man at a downtown speakeasy in December 1932.

Baker’s friend, Patrolman Vern Teeple, later related what had happened to Baker’s grandson, Dan Baker of Warren.

According to the younger Baker and news accounts at the time, the 35-year-old patrolman was sent to a bar at Market and Pine streets because a drunken man was tearing it up. When Baker arrived, the man — whom he knew — said he was ready to leave. Baker did not handcuff his prisoner, who then decided he didn’t want to go to jail. He grabbed Baker from behind, slamming him several times against a light pole.

Baker struck the drunken man on the forehead until the man turned Baker loose. Later, while Baker was walking his beat, he began to cough up blood and went to the hospital.

He seemed to improve and was sent home but later discovered that a broken rib had punctured his lung, and he died of an infection. He had worked in the department for eight years.

yovich@vindy.com