The San Francisco call., 1897-10-22

work, ana if they succeed in capturing
the criminal the capture is given to the
papers, but ii they fail, as is too often the
case, the papers and public never hear
OF it.
$50 it is with other crimes. 1t is only
when the offender is caught ;hat the pa
pers are permitte to get hold of the mat
ter, except In murders which cannot be
concealed, and the long list of these where
the murderers have escaped show the in
efficiency of the city's detective force.
Il do not mean to say that there are no
good men on the upper office force. De-
tectives Bee and Harper are as good men
as can be found anywhere, but il is seldom
one hears of them. | know however, that
it is those two who lay the wires in ali the
big cases, and then others go out and
make the capture, gaining all the glory,
while Bee and Harper are kept in the
background.
Tine TWO best men that were ever con-
nected with the department were Captain
Stone anc Bob Hogan, but what was their
fate? Stone was retired while he was still
in his prime, and Bob Hogan has been
shelved in the District Attorneys office.
No better man ever ran down criminal
than Hogan, but because he would not
yield in his opinion to that of his superiors
he was put out OF harms way. The first
trouble that l know OF was over the Ben
hayon case. Hogan would not surrender
his belief that 1T was murder, while Lees
declared II was suicide. After that the
two never got along well together, and at
the first opportunity Hogan was taken off
regular work.
Il do not say that all the men on the
detective force are incompetent, but it is
certain tina, some OF them are, and the de-
partmeni needs reorganiZing badly. 1t is
not necessary to go outside of the Police
Department for good men, for there are
IN hat tfpr
employed on detective work and nobody
knows that better than Chief Lees himself.
The whole trouble is that the olice
rely almost wholly on stool pigeons to
effect capture, and that method is obso-
Iete. Criminals have progressed in their
professions the same as tho,e following
more legitimate cailings have. and while
the stool pigeon system was necessary
1orty years ago, when Chief Lees began
his Work, 1t is entirely out of date now
Let me explain the method under
which the police work. Suppose a rob-
berry has been com mitted on the Barbary
Coast. The patrolmen in that district are
notified and begin to make inquiries
They know all the petty criminals, many
OF whom they have befriended to the ex-
tent OF b-irg lenient with them, and these
criminals are told to locate the robber II
they succeed-which is not often now
the patroman notifies lis Captain, the
NPDCA OulCt 10 anu QeLeCLlVo /
sent out To make the arrest and receive
the credit. But robbers, burglars and
their kind are not hanging around saloons
nowadays, Dragging about what they were
roing to do or had done, as In the old
days, and in consequence the days OF the
stool pigeon are over.
"One thing that has always m Initiated
against the efficiency of the detective
force has been the danger of treading on
some favorite OF a superior officer. This
has always been the case. and until it is
overcome and younger anc more fearless
and efficient blood injected into the de-
partment you need look for no improve.
ment Chief Lees has been a splendid
detective officer in his day, but times and
the methods OF criminals have changed
wonderfully, ard 1t needs a younger man
to conduct the department., in my opinion,
than the present head"