END OF WATCH: April 14, 1925
Cleveland Police Department
Patrolman Frantz was a motorcycle traffic officer assigned to Cleveland’s ninth precinct. On Tuesday, April 14, 1925, at 3:00 pm, he was dispatched to Ridge Road and Flowerdale Avenue to investigate an auto accident.
While responding southbound on Scranton Road near the Big Four Railroad bridge, Frantz ran over a windshield frame in the middle of the roadway and blew out the front tire of his motorcycle. Frantz was thrown from the cycle and sustained upper body and head injuries. Frantz was transported to the City Hospital where he died later that day.
As a result of this accident, Police Prosecutor Jacob Stacel asked Safety Director Edward Barry to appoint a special police homicide unit. The units function would be to thoroughly investigate every fatal traffic accident and submit the evidence to the prosecutor’s office.
Safety Director Barry agreed to appoint the unit which would provide more information than received in routine investigations. This unit was the forerunner of what is now known as the Accident Investigation Unit of the Cleveland Police Department.
Patrolman Charles Frantz was survived by his wife, Elizabeth, his children Lloyd and Dorothy, his mother Mary Frantz, brothers, Lloyd and Elmer and a sister, Florence Kenealy.
Funeral services were held Saturday, April 18, 1926, at his late residence and he was laid to rest at the West Park Cemetery.
Charles J. Frantz’s name is inscribed on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Wall, Washington, D.C. panel 54, west wall, line 17.
By Recruit Raymond E. Burant, Jr., Cleveland Police Academy.
