The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-27
THE POLICE iSYSTE,V.


The recent robbery of prominent store on
Chesnut street is one of series of similar
events which are we'll calculated to alarm the
whole mercantile community, and to impress
the public with the necessity of reorganiza-
tion and improvement in the police force
The attention of our citizens has already
been forcibly directed to this subject by the
late message of Mayor Fox advocating an in
crease of the number of policemen, but each
day affords new evidence of the insufficiency
of the present agencies for protecting pro-
perty and life and maintaining order.
An increase of the number of po-
licemen is the most natural remedy for
these Disorders, and the extent of territory to
be patroed is so great that it is perhaps vain to
expect eight hundred men to insure complete
security. But this measure is by no means
the only improvement required. We might
double or treble the number of policemen
without securing any better protection than
we have now, if incompetent officers are
to be appointed, if no reform of the
system is effected, and if the
guardians of the municipality are to be
selected or retained on account of their USE
fulness as partisans in carrying delegate elec-
tions, or in rallying voters to the polls, in
stead of their rendering real service to the
public. When a political revolution occurs
in the Mayors Office, there are usually about
ten thousand applicants for the honor of
wearing a star and welding a club, and if
they were all appointed and maintained at
the public expense, honest and pcaceable
citizens would probably be more completely
at the mercy of the rascals and roughs of the
community than ever, and at all events
the taxes for maintaining such horde of Off
cials would become unendurable.
Pains must be taken to improve the cha
racter of the force, to increase its activity
and utility, as we'll as to swell its numbers,
before it will properly serve the purposes of
its creation. The public spirit common to
all portions of America which makes every
good citizen consider himself as the natural
ally of the Government in cases of emer-
geucy still prevails to large extent in this
community, and it greatly diminishes the
necessity which would otherwise exist for
large force. Although we have now only about
one policeman for every thousand people, itis
only very small proportion of each thousand
of population that is ever watched, arrested,
or admonished, while very large proportion
would aid in the maintenance of order when
ever their services were required OF the
thousands of arrests which are reported every
year an immense number consist of repeated
lockings-up of few unruly or turbulent indi-
viduals, and if a few thousand of this class
could be permanently disposed of in House
of Correction, the Almshouse, the Prison, the
Penitentiary, or the Insane Asylum,
nine-tenths of the present active en-
ployment of the police would
be destroyed. A good force, under proper
regulations, accompanied by some modifca-
tions of the existing laws, could soon weed
out of the community nine-tenths of its
most troublesome members The principle
that an ounce of prevention is worth pound
of cure could be applied with as much effect
to the body polite as to individual constitu-
tions. 1t would be especially effective in
diminishing the number of the more dan
gerous predatory crimes if the detective
system were properly organized 1t is
now we'll understood that these grave
offenses are nearly always perpetrated
by professional criminals, who are known,
in many instances, by the detectives and
the committing magistrates. Young commu-
mites speedily learn how to purge themselves
of such pests. They strike at the root of the
evil, and when other means fail, Vigilance
Committee, by few summary deeds, makes
life and.property more secure, and strikes more
terror into the hearts of the disciplined foes
of society than an army of detectives In
the populous cities of the Atlantic seaboard,
however, the custom has gradually grown up
of making it the pecuniary interest, in one
shape or another, of detectives, committing
magistrates and prosecuting attornies, that
grimes shall be as numerous and fragrant as
possible. The gains which enrich thieves
may and often do, indirectly, enrich those
who are especially entrusted with the task o.
arresting md Furnishing them; and the Off
Ger who does his full duty to the public
thereby diminishes his private revenues
Every feature of this system should be up
rooted. If we can do no better we should
adopt something like the Chinese plan O.
paying their physicians while health is main
tanned, and stopping their salaries as soon al
disease is developed. The opposite system il
adding new burdens to society every year
and if the army of professional criminals goe
on increasing no limits can be set to its ex
actions. One of the most important duties
OF the day is the suppression or destruction
Of this desperately dangerous class, and ye
many things conspire to encourage aud in
prease them. Public sentiment should b