This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

In my living room is a picture of my brothers and me in our police uniforms. It was taken back in the late '80s, a time when we were completely sure of ourselves and what we were about.

Only one of us in the photo is still a cop today, and it isn't me. I'm happy about that. I wouldn't want to be a police officer today.

Come to think of it, I wouldn't have wanted to be a cop a hundred years ago, either. I say this because of an old newspaper clipping I recently came across.

From the Jan. 6, 1920, issue of the Deseret News:

"COLORED WOMEN ARRESTED. Lillie White, colored, and Anna Grenington, also colored, were arrested last night by officers C.L. Schettler and L.R. Watts of the purity squad of the city police force on charges of vagrancy. They were released on bail in the sum of $25 each."

Several things should concern us about this long-ago police action, the first of which is that I did not make up the name "Lillie White." It's an actual quote.

Second is how Lillie and Anna could be arrested for vagrancy in the first place if they each had $25 with which to bail themselves out. That was a lot of money in 1920.

Third is whether the word "vagrancy" was simply an alternative word for being black. Remember, this was Utah in 1920.

The scariest part for me is the phrase "purity squad." What the hell was a police purity squad? It's not an assignment I would have wanted as a cop, or even been able to qualify for if I had.

Short of the two babies I helped deliver, I never once encountered anything that qualified as pure. Everyone else I ran into back then could have theoretically been arrested for some impurity.

"Purity squad" sounds like something that would be implemented in a place fondly referred to by its inhabitants as "Zion." It brings to mind Sharia law enforced by Islamic police squads, places where purity is the government's business.

In Saudi Arabia, the purity squad is referred to as the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. In areas controlled by more restrictive governments, the purity squad is known as "The Guys Who'll Cut Your Head Off."

The clerical police go around looking for immodest clothing in shops, which they then sack. Women actually caught wearing the immodest clothing — depending on whether it's misdemeanor full facial displays, or felony short pants — can be assaulted, stripped and fined.

It's not that bad in America. I searched further and discovered that a police "purity squad" had little to do with religious intrusion into secular matters. Rather it was a severe term for what would later be the more accurately vague "morals squad." There's more room for discretion in morality than in purity.

"Purity" is a bad choice of word. It implies an existing condition that needs to be maintained or protected. Unfortunately, human beings over the age of 72 hours stop being pure and never will be again.

Eventually, the police term became "vice squad," as in "I got transferred to vice." It's the appropriate designation in a free society where it's not a question whether vice can be tolerated at all, but rather how much.

Robert Kirby can be reached at rkirby@sltrib.com or facebook.com/stillnotpatbagley.