Raymond M. Dillon, chief of the police department of the City of  Miami and by virtue of his position a forceful factor in municipal affairs, is a native of Key West, Florida, born April 3, 1882. He is a son of George W. and Elizabeth P. (Albury) Dillon, the former a native of the State of Georgia and the latter born at Key West, Florida. George W. Dillon removed to Key West with his parents, who were natives of the State of Georgia. He was captain of the steamship Martinique, running from Key West to Miami and Nassau, and was well-known as a seaman. He died September 21, 1907, and his widow now resides in Miami, the family having removed here about 1898.
Raymond M. Dillon was sixteen years of age when his parents removed to Buena Vista. They later built a home on Avenue B, which they subsequently disposed of and moved to Avenue L and Tenth street. Mr. Dillon was educated in the public schools of Key West. At the age of sixteen he went to sea with his father, and for eighteen years followed the life of a seaman on the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico and touching at the ports of New York, Philadelphia and Jacksonville. He holds a master’s license for ocean steamers. He was for five years connected with the Key West extension. His last service on the sea was with the steamship Van, plying between Miami and Jacksonville. He then became associated with the sanitary department of the City of Miami as a sanitary inspector. In 1917 he was elected Chief of Police of the City of Miami, taking office November 1 of that year. He was re-elected in 1919, his term of office expiring November 1, 1921. He has made an enviable record as an official, showing at all time a zealous regard for the public welfare and meeting the exacting problems of his department with rare judgment and firm determination. The rapid growth of the city has made the problem of police regulation a difficult undertaking, and the position of the chief of the department has been one requiring the utmost in tact, ability and judgment. During the World War there were over fifteen thousand soldiers encamped here, which gave an added responsibility to the police forces of the city, and during the tourist season the regulation of traffic becomes a strenuous task. Chief Dillon has met these problems with a full sense of his responsibility and his official record is that of an able, fearless official who knows his duty and does it. The personnel of his department now numbers sixty-two men, and to him is largely due the credit of securing an increase of salary for his men. Mr. Dillon was married September 26, 1906, to Adelaide Moody, of Bartow, Florida, and they have four children: Melville, Elizabeth, Eugenia and Ruth. Fraternally, he is a Mason, in which order he has filled all the chairs, having been Master of Biscayne Bay Lodge No. 124 during 1918-19. He holds the confidence of the public in a generous measure and is an intelligent, progressive citizen, actively interested in all public matters.