Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-12
WORK OF THE POLICE.
Chief Brown Submits the Annual
Report for This Bureau.
DON'T WANT ANY MORE LICENSES.
0'Mara Says There Are No Professional
Thieves in the City.
SPEAE-EASIES NEARLY ALL WIPED OUT

The annual reports showing the opera
tions of the various bureaus of the Depart
ment of Public Safety are being finished up
and submitted to Chief Brown for printing.
The Bureau OF Health report was printed in
THE DISPATCH last Monday, and Police
Superintendent O'Mara's was completed
yesterday. The detailed statements referred
to in his report, given below, are numerou:
and bulky, but complete and interesting.
They will be published in the annual report
of the department.
Chief Browns personal report is short
and pithy 1t is addressed to Councils and
is as follows:
GENTLEMEN-The records and reports for
the year ending January 81. 1892. herewith
submitted, constitute my fourth annual re-
port to your honorable bodies and C Sc my
first term as Chief of the Department OF
Public Safety. The record is made and sub
mitted to you, OF the success or failure of
the work you and the public are competent
to Judge. For its successful administration
Task no praise; and as for its shortcomings,
the magnitude of the work is one element of
its failure.
[ have had the superintendents of the
various bureaus make detailed and exhaust
i've statements of the operations and mat
tiers pertaining thereto, and would respect
fully ask your attention to the clear outline
embraced within the scope and sphere of
these exhibits.
A Tribute to Gamble Weir.
During the year the department met with
an frreparable loss in the death of the late
lameuted Gamble Weir, Superintendent of
the Bureau OF Police His efficient service,
executive ability and wise counsel are
greatly missed by the Bureau of Police and
the Department of Public Safety.
Entering upon the fast year of my second
term as Chief of the Department of Public
Safety, / invoke your hearty cooperation
and assistance and thanking you for cheerful
compliance with all requests made by me.
Superintendent O'Mara's report deals
largely with the obstacles to be contended
with in the police bureau, and he gives con-
siderable space TO the question of suppress
sion OF one class of disorderly houses, taking
a negative stand and arguing that, as the
police have them under thorough control
and confined to certain localities where
they are least offensive to the better class
of people, they are less harmful than if
closed and the inmates running at large or
concealed in places now free from them.
Referring to speak-easies, the Superintend-
ent has this to say:
Plenty of Licenses Were Granted.
The liquor laws have been rigidly enforced
and there has been a notable falling off in
violations of liquor laws; clubhouses are
being conducted in an orderly and quiet
manner and jughouses and speak-easies
have been almost wholly eradicated. There
are however, Il few speak-easies sprfnging
up, on Sunday especially, and which require
constant vigilance to suppress. They are
usually carried on by widows seeking to Sc
cure a little money Tor the support of them
sol children. fOrmCrlY i
tomary for us to arrest both the proprietors
of and visitors to these illegal liquor houses,
but during the past year we only arrested
the proprietors, as the visitors were com.
posed in nearly every case of the poor and
Working class who could ilI-afford to pay a
fine The admirable distribution of licenses
by the Court has done much toward eradi-
eating the illegal liquor traffic, as the saloons