The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1886-10-06

Serious Charges that are Never Wade
PubIie.-Offieers Compelled
to Resign.

Serious Charges that are Never Wade
Publie.-Offieers Compelled
to Resign.
Since Superintendent Murray became the
head of the New York police force there
has been notable falling off in the num-
Der of citizens complaints against police
men. The time devoted to this class of
cases has been shortened one-half and is
yet too long. The claim is not advanced,
however, that the morale of the force has
improved so per cent since last summer.
The cause of the change is found in the
fact that the complaints are sifted more
carefully than before, and many that IRE
either irrelevant or of too damaging a
nature to go before the public are never
brought to trial. Gases of the latter kind
were numerous under the old regime, but
are now seldom heard of outside the Super
intendents private Office. The trial of the
offending officer begins and as rule ends
there, and with it his career on the force.
He leaves the Superintendents presence n
private citizen, having signed his resig-
anton then and there and voluntarily sur
rendered his shield. That he has done SO
is all the public hears of it, and the man
goes out in life with fair chance to make
another start and recover his lost ground
This is Mr. Murray's humane improvement
on the old method of sending him out with
blackened reputation and ruined for all
time by single slip for which the disci-
pline of the department demanded his dis
missal, and it has been of incalculable
tenefit to the force and to the individual.
reporter, who sought the superintendent
At Headquarters and cornered him in his
inner sanctum after one of these character.
site interviews with an accused hluecoat,
found him at first unwilling to speak of his
personal share in the disciplining of the
'orce but finding that the reporter had
very fair idea of the facts he yielded and
outlined his programme briefly.
g 1t is impossible, of course" he said,
that among 5000 men, however carefully
picked, there should not be SOME black
sheep. The thing is to get rid of them,
and as speedily and peaceably as possible.
personally all charges made by citizens
against policemen. Twenty odd years OF
service in the force in all grades, from
patrolman up, give one q practical insight
into human nature as it is exhibited in the
force and in its contact with the rest of the
world that should enable one to decide
easily which charges should go to trial and
which should not. Sometimes it is merely
that both the officer and the citizen making
the complaint have been hasty, and little
judicious smoothing makes everything love-
ly. They shake hands end go away happy.
Very often the complaint is made against
the officer by number, and when he appears
to face his accuser the latter acknowledges
that he is not the man. In some way he
has made mistake, and goes away prom
ising to find the right one, but in eight out
of ten cases that is the last we hear of it.
That used to be the ending of many cases
on trial in past years, and the time they
took up was worse than wasted. Some
times, too, it happens that find the citizen
Wa u aud unreasonable, md in such cases
| say to the officer, You ought to be COM
mended, not eensured. Go back to your
precinct. | will not make charges against
you : and he goes to his station and tells
the men, The Superintendent is with us.
He will not listen to every charge against
policeman The effect on the forte ia good.
In such matters the Superintendent decree
is final. 1t is he who must make the
charge, or there can be no trial.
"When the opposite happens, when
there has been a real outrage and the officer
has no defence, send for him quietly, give
him chance to tell his story, and then
show him that trial, with its attendant
disgrace and its damaging record, can only
result in dismissal. l leave IL to him
whether he had not better resign at once,
and it is a very rare thing that he does not
see it in that light. Probably as many as q
score of designations have been handed to
me in thet way in the past year, and much
humiliation, public and private, has been
avoided. At its next meeting the board
accepts the resignation and that is all the
public will hear of it. The man still has
life before him, with chance of rehabili-
tating himself. He Is not cast out with n
fatal brand ON him, and people are not
needlessly frightened. They would be, II
every case of that sort that occurs were
bassooned out in the press. Three thousand
men, MS said, make quite troop, and all
kinds get in from time TO time. A firm
hand and some practical judgment are
required in managing them. Yes 1 re.
member the case you speak Of It occurred
in an uptown precinct last fall. Two police
men in uniform got drunk in o saloonit
was on Sunday morning, as you say--and
robbed man of his watch. What sort of q
rumpus would that story have made had II
got into print with all the sensational
touches you people would have given IL
Every decent policeman trying to do his
duty would have felt tbs disgrace it reflected
on the force and its demoralizing effect. I
brought the men down here, put the case TO
them, and gave them a chance to resign.
They took 1t quietly enough They were
not naturally vicious men. They did pro-
cisely what thousands of others who do not
wear uniform do every day-they yielded
to the temptation to drink, and slipped.
For that reason they were unfit to be police
man, but it does not follow that they
should therefore be denied every other
chance to make an honest living.