Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-01-18

1Ounu tO StADu III HUsllllly lO all efforts made to suppress vice. but stood :. idly by and permitted citizens engaged in performing duties which they should have undertaken to be mobbed and brutally as- saulted upon the streets
 The testimony of this kind. in fact. showed throughout an extraordinary dis inclination on the part of the police, so efficient in other respects, to display any desire or activity in the suppression of certain descriptions of vice and crime, a disinclination so strong that others-at- tempting to perform that function found the police arrayed against them, and OK perienced greater embarrassment from this circumstance than from any difficulty connected with the suppression of the vice itself. It indicated the amazing condition that in most of the precincts of tho city houses of i'll repute, gambling houses. pol icy shops poolrooms and unlawful resorts of n similar character were being openly conducted under the eyes of the police without attempt at concealment-so pub licly. in fact, that the names of the per sons and the street numbers of the houses were not only known throughout the com munity, but published in the daily prints and yet they remained open and ostenta- tiOusly tlourished.
 Police Justices In League Too.
 hnllc IL WIS llllpOSSlDlo TUT NOur COiu- mittee to spend much time in considering police courts. enough is shown upon the record to justify the conclusion that very important reason why the police have been able to carry on and successfully perpetrate their reprehensible practices is that at least some of the police justices have apparently worked in sympathy and collusion with them.
 In conclusion, your committee expresses the. conviction that the testimony conclu- sively establishes an indictment against the police department of tho city of New York as a whole, It establishes the neccs- sity for radical and hasic reorganization by the elimination of those, clements which may be found to be untruStwOrthy, inetfi- cient and corrupt. The conclusion which has impressed itself upon your committee, however, is that tho disorganiZing ele- ments at work in tho police department are such that operate from the higher off cials down rather than from the patrol men up
 It is generally conceded that the munic | ipal police arc 2ealous and unsurpassed in efficiency and desire to protect life and property upon the highways of the city. It is significant fact that but little cor ruption has been traced into the pockets 1 of the ordinary patrolman. and that such | sins as may he laid at his door largely con- sist in abuse of physical force, infringe ment upon the rights and privileges of 1 private citizens and omission to disclose the criminal conduct of his superiors. The Social Evil. The report then takes up various illegal | practices which were protected by the po- | lice and under the head of "Disorderly | Houses says:
 1 As an evidence of the extraordinary con ditions to which this system had given | rise, it iS proper to call your attention to the fact that in a number of cases women who. ns keepers of disorderly | houses had paid thousands of dollars for police protection, had become reduced to the verge of starvation, while those who had cxactcd blackmail from them were l living in luxury. Their houses had been | furnished out of the earnings of these women. or they were wearing ornaments | of iewelry purchased by them, and even the furniture of their houses had been paid for by those whom they had protected | in the commission of crimo.
 l Tho evidence establishes furthermore
 that not only the proprietors of disorderly
 houses pay for their illegal privileges, but
 the OutcastS of society pay patrolmen on
 post for permission to solicit on the public
 highways. dividing their earnings with
 them, and often, as appears by proof, when
 brought before police magistrates and
 committed to the penitentiary for disor
 dcrly conduct in default of bail. they com
 pounded their sentences and secured bail
 by paying S1O or Slo to tho clerk of tho
 court or his agents. and were then releas
 ed again to ply their calling and become
 victimi7ed as before
 The evidence furthermore shows that iL
 some of tho houses of the character dc l SNpihaH visitors af jrnllv rD1n
 bed. and when they mado complaint al
 the station house the man detailed to OK
 amino into the charge failed to arrest tho
 perpctrator and frightened the victim of
 by threats, and thcn returned and received
 his cOmpcnsation-an equal division O
 the plundcr between the thief and the off
 ger.
 The testimony taken as whole, con clusively establishes that tho social eYi wAs and probably still is fostercd and pro tectcd by tho police uf tho city, even to tht extent of inducing it's vOtarics to oonhnu their illegal practices. maintaining Sub stantially partnership with themin tn traffic absorbing the largest part of tn resulting profit
 The ReCOmmc ntlatiOns. The report concludes with series O , recommendations, some of which arc a l follows:
 The concentration in the hands of n su f perintcndent of police. to Do hercafte
 known as chief of police, of all those pow
 CTS connected with and which affect tn
 discipline control and efficiency of tn , entire uniformed force, including assign
 ment and transfer, whereby the cxecutiv , functions of the department shall bo lodG 2 ed wholly in his hands, and he shall bo a in fact, tho responsible single head of tn
 uniformed force.
 I That tho board of police commissioner
 shall by law be made bipartisan board
 with exclusive authority over tho admin !, istrative and judicial functions of the d f partment. as well as over those which a v feet tho elective franchise
 . That all promotions shall bo made
 conformity with the rules of the servi, : for merit and superior capacity only witt . in tho limitations prescribed by the bi
 herewith submitted.
 A That a radical reorganization of the d f partment be made by commissioners n n | pointed for that purpose upon whom sha - be conferred, subject to approval by u n mayor, absolute and summary power |, dismissal of any person and persons CO V nected with said department who in the a Judgment do not possess the neceSsa o qualifications or answer the rcquiremen d of the service which reorganization shf d be made upon the lines laid down in u # bill for that purpose accompanying tl
 report.
 That your committee be continued al
 the scope of its authority increased in co IS formity with the resolution heretofore i n troduced.
 d Your committee respectfully preser nl the accompanying bills upon the subjet It | hereinbefore referred to and recommcn 'd their passage
 Id The committee remains as original Is constituted except that Charles T. Sa IS ton resigned his office as senator and es tired from the committee when elect
 lieutenant governor.
 H. CLARENCE LEXOw, Chairman. ed EDWARD O'CoNNoR at GEORGE W. ROBERTSON.