In 1944, Oliver Cowan, a District of Columbia police officer, remarked: “Many of these kids never had a chance. . . . They never were important in their classes. . . . They get into mischief. Now, in the clubs, they all get an important job to do.” Cowan was referring to the members of his new youth program—the 13th Precinct Junior Police and Citizens Corps. Probably unknown to Cowan, about 40 years earlier and more than halfway across the United States, a similar organization had been started by George Richmond, the police chief of Council Bluffs, Iowa.