Omaha daily bee., 1874-06-03
POLICE REroRM.

cred upon the discharge of his OIL
,ial duties as City Marshal of Oma-
"a, he assured the public that ne
proposed to inaugurate radical re-
form through our entire police sys-
tenn. So far the BEE fails to observe
anything very radical or very re-
in this important branch
of the public service.
II is true the Marshal has issued
a bombastic and long-winded set OF
rules for the government of the po-
lice Sbrce, but these rules can hardly
be of practical service as long as the
old plumber and blackmail system
is countenanced and kept up by the
Marshal himself.
Nobody knows better than
Marshal Snowden that the
employment of a constable to serve
writs from the Police Court is simply
an ingenious evasion of the letter
and spirit of the charter. Inc
trainers of the charter expressly
prohibited the Marshal and Police
from collecting any fees for the ar
rests of violators of the ordinances,
or for testifying in the Police Court.
This was done to protect innocent
parties from imposition by greedy
policemen who would frequently
make indiscriminate arrests for the
sole purpose of pOcketing the fees.
This wholesome provision has be-
come a dead letter, because the
Marshal places his favOrite constable
into the Police Court, instead OF de-
failing a police officer for this duty.
The constable is under no restraints
from the charter, and hence he finds
some rich picking in the Police Court.
We have already denounced this
practice, and must again repeat that
it is an imposition which should no
longerbe tolerated. And now let us
say a few words about the Omaha
social evil system, which We have
good reason to believe has done
more to corrupt and demoralize our
police force than any other known
agency. Ithas all the worst features
of the license system without any
of its redeeming qualities.
While prostitution is treated as a
crime its habitual votaries are made
to do penance by regular monthly
fines, These fines were originally
intended as contributions to the
public school fund, but practic-
ally the greater portion has been
Systematically appropriated by
a confederate spy, who receives his
authority through the Marshal, and
plays the part of informer and Of
ficer. Thss is by no means the
worst feature. The system Is the
source of unblushing frauds both
upon the city and the social evil
victims. These frauds are perpe-
trated under cover of the law, and
money is extorted which never sees
the City Treasury. Other transac-
tons of a most scandalous char
acter have been reported to us, which
cannot but have a very demOraliz-
ing tendency on our police force.
of these these the Marshal who has
been i'm the service several years
can hardly be ignorant.
p. S.-Since writing this article,
we have received a communication,
touching this subject, from Judge
Wilbur. This communication will
be found i'm our local COLUMNS. While
il c~orrects some errors i'm our esti-
mate of the amounts collected by the
Police Court from the social evilists,
it does not materially alter the fact
thatthe employment Of go-between
to attend to this class of offenders
by the Marshal affords a great scope
for swindling and Matchmaking.
Parties who claim to be posted de-
clare that there are not less than
two hundred women in Omaha to-
day that would properly come un-
der the social evil ordinance. While
they do not all live in public houses
they could be readily fereted out by
an efficient officer. Out of this
number, according to the Judges
showing, only forty-nine were re-
turned by the Marshal. Did the
others escape because they were not
known i? and how many have been
induced to make private settle
ment without the knowledge Of the
Marshal?