The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-25
TO SEE SAVANNAH'S POLICE.
THE POLICE UNION TO COME HERE
NEXT SPRING.

The Convention to he HeIu in Allan
tn and Mt Its Close the Chiefs to
Visit Savannah-Chief McDermOtt,s
Trip North and His Observations
of the Police Systems There.
The convention Of the police union Of
America will be held next year in Atlanta.
After the adjournment of the convention
the chiefs will have an excursion TO sayan-
nah.
Chief McDermott had a good deal to do
with securing the convention for Atlanta.
and one of the conditions on which he exer-
cised his pull was that there should BE- an
excursion to Savannah at the close Of the
convention. He is anxious 70 get the chiefs
Of the country down here in order that they
may see for themselves what Savannah is.
Incidentally he will be glad of any sugges-
tons which they may make for the i'm
provement Of savannah's police service.
His chief object however is to prove to
them the truth of the statement
made to the union by Detective
William Pinkerton that Savannah
is the prettiest city IN America,
barring none. This is Mr.. Pinkerton's YER
dict, and he has seen all of them.
BLESS your life," said Chief McDermott
to a Morning News reporter, Il am not
afraid to have those fellows come down
here. We haven't got as big force as
some other places, but when it comes to
discipline, appearance OF men and equip
ment, we are right in the front rank.
don't mean to make any reflections on 9TH
er cities when 1 say 50, but 1 was surprised
at some things l saw when went north.
Why Savannah is ahead of New York on
some things. New 7 ork has no police wa
CONS and no call boxes. They
have just decided to purchase
wagons for the department / saw a po-
liccman in New York arrest a drunken
man, throw him into a coal wagon and
haul him into the station with a small
army of boys following the procession.
If we did anything of that kind down here
the people would all make fun Of us The
discipline of the police in some OF the large
cities was not what | expected to see.
There was too much familiarity among
men and officers; too much Longing
around quarters. and too much careless
ness on the streets. In Washington l saw
policemen sitting on ratings around the
parks joking with citizens and playing
with the children. That doesn't suit our
ideas of discipline at all. l visited Phil
adelphia, Brooklyn, Newark. and all the
principal points between Washington and
New York. There are trains every TWEEN
ty minutes, and you can take them all in
in day. Where the northern cities are
ahead of us is in their detective system
They have this reduced to a science. We
can very well afford to borrow a few points
here.
Atlanta got the convention by the vote
Of the chairman. 1t was a tie between
Atlanta and Pittsburg, rs to rs. Chair
man Eldridge cast the deciding vote in
favor of Atlanta There was where we
got in our good work. Connolly of At
lanta nominated Eldridge and the south
ern men seconded the nomination strong
ly. Eldridge is superintendent of the po-
lice force of Boston. He was in Savan-
nah this spring and made a very pleas
ant cali on me. The southern and west
ern men voted almost solidly for Atlanta
and the northern men for Pittsburg Con-
molly asked the rest of us to help him out.
and we pulled off our coats and worked
with a will for Atlanta. It's good idea
to get those fellows down this way They
can do us good in more ways than
one. We won by the chairman's vote, but
ii took good work. All the southern
states were represented at the convention,
Georgia having five Representatives Chief
Oliver of Athens was elected chaplain He
was the only preacher in the crowd"
Chief McDermOtt was the youngest man
at the convention. Most of the eastern
chiefs promised him that they would
come down by the coastwise steamers on
their way to the convention, so as to pass
through Savannah on their way to At
lanta.