The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-04-29
OFFICE CHIEF OF POLICE,
ST.. LOUIS, April |, 1911.


Hon. Board of Police Commissioners:
GENTLEMEN II deem it part Of the
dnty OF nv office. respectfully. y to SUI stg4
vice entrusted to your charge, viz: The
detective department, which compre
hends in its action nor only the safety
Of our community in affairs VI ,ne
highest value, but is constantly invoked
tor co operation and aid by the police
force OF every large city of the coun,
try.
The organization of detective de,
partment OF police everywhere is in,
tended for the protection of the larger
interests of the community in life and
property; it has to deal with combina.
tons in crime composed OF talent and
OF numbers, and its efficacy is in pre-,
vention chiefly; hence 1 operations
must be secret, and must bd conducted
BY men of rare ability and tact. A
detective force is as we'll general in its
operations as local, and to render it
fully effective, information must be con-
stantly furnished from distant points;
the bank burglar, the express robber,
the counterieiter, and other opera
tors on a large scale take flight
at once, and make distance
conduce to safety; their movements
are measured by calculation, and they
seek and procure protection from their
associates and accomplices, especially
in distant cities. The detective force OF
every city in the Union, ought TO be,
not disjointed body as now, but
chain of rapid communication and &C
ton by combined rule and CIPHER;
the organization should be a network
Of swift intelligence and prompt per
Torrance which would arrest crime
whether stationary or in flight this
valuable result can never be reached
whilst operations are conducted on in
dependent and often on opposite systems
in each locality; no agency Of the pub.
lie service requires combination and
union more accurate and Ineligible
than the detective branch Of the police
power to prevent crime, as well as to ar
rest it after preparation
The knowledge Of such an Orsanizs-
ton would OF itself, effect much 10
deter the commission Of felonies Men
enter on the career OF crime, as Oh
business, with the hope Of success and
escape, and perhaps OF reformation
afterwards; the most hardened would
pause if he thought capture certain;
and a combined detective force with the
talent it can command in this country,
will make it certain.
There is one mode by which this
end can be reached, it has frequently
occurred to me. and being now in po-
sition where it becomes duty to tender
the results OF my experience and con-
sideration, ] respectfully present it.
Let convention of the heads OF the
police force with their chiefs OF every
city in the Union, be held on the invi-
tation OF your honorable board, in the
city or ST. Louis, at an appointed time,
in the year 1871, for the purpose Of TAX.
ing council together to inaugurate and
adopt code OF rules and regulations,
where the whole detective force OF the
country can act in union, for the pre-
gention and detection OF crime,
upon such conditions as the experience
md judgment Of the convention shall
determine
Your honorable board can see at once
low easy this conference can be held,
md the benefits that will result to the
afety OF person and property therefrom,
throughout the United States.
Respectfully submitted,
JAS. McDoNoUGs, Chief.