The San Francisco call., 1898-12-29
SHAKE-UP IN
 THE POLICE DEPARTMENT Chief Lees Stirred to :. Action. RESULT OF CALLS EXPOSE OFFICERS IN GAMBLING DIS TRICT GO TO OTHER BEATS. . They Are Said to Have Given Warn ing to Friendly Saloon-Keep-
 CTS Instead of Arrest
 ing Them.
RESULT OF CALLS EXPOSE
OFFICERS IN GAMBLING DIS
 TRIcT GO TO OTHER BEATS. :.

Chief Lees has at last been compelled to admit that The Call was telling the
 truth when it published the list of faro,
 crap and roulette games which were being
 operated in the Palace Hotel and else
 where throughout the city, under the
 very noses of the police, and apparently
 with the sanction or conivance of men
 high in authority in the Police Depart
 ment.
 As a direct result of The Calls expose
 a shake-up in the police of the Southern
 station has taken place, Officer Driscoll
 has been transferred from the corner of
 Third and Market streets to lower Third
 street, between Folsom and the railroad
 tracks. Officer Harrison has been trans
 ferred from Third to Folsom Officer
 Noting taking his place. Officer Fraher
 has been taken from. the beat on upper Market street and sent to lower Third,
 while Officer Riley goes from the latter
 beat to the Market-street beat. Officer
 Phelan is also transferred from Folsom
 scandal The other changes are also
 caused by the alleged failure of the off, cers along Market street to report the
 existence of gambling games on their
 beats and their further failure to execute
 the orders of the Chief.
 Several days. ago the Chief. issued or
 ders for the arrest of a number of saloon keepers who were operating. nickel-in-the- slot machines: paying money to winners. Instead of arresting the saloon men the officers notified them to get rid of the ma chimes Then the Chief concluded that the officers were rather too well ac l'quainted with the lawbreakers and issued orders for their transfer. At police head quarters it is officially denied that the
 changes are due to the gambling scandal, but among the men themselves 1t is no < secret that the Chief has been very much perturbed by The Calls criticism, and that his sudden activity is attributable to no other cause.
 The first intimation that the Chief was beginning to come. out of the trance into l. which he had fallen was when he made his great raid on the saloons where the nefarious slot machines were being oper I ated to rob the. public of its nickels last . Saturday night. At first 1t was feared that this was but a spasmodic attempt on | the part of the head of the Police Depart
 ment to prove to the citizens of San Francisco that he was alive and that he would, after having gathered in a fair exhibit of these gambling devices, settle !. back in his chair for another long, remin- iScent doZe.
 But The Calls story of the big gambling layout in the Palace, operated under the
 very nose of the Chief himself, with the
 mass of evidence offered to prove all that
 was alleged, struck deep into the very | soul of the aged sleuth He tried to deny
 the truth, but he soon 50 @P,1o found that it was
 mitted the facts as. published. The subse- quent publication of a list of other places i. where gambling games were allowed to
 run unmolested and the criticism of the Police Department which was entailed thereby rankled in the breast of the Chief until he. determined to act. The re- assignment of officers followed.
 If the Chief. will now detail an officer
 whom he can trust to stand behind his | chair and pinch him whenever he falls 1 into a doze, it is barely possible that he
 may keep fairly well posted on what is
 going on in police circles and know whether or not his subordinates are doing r. their duty: Otherwise it is more than probable that things will soon get back into the same old ruts and the cruel duty of applying a galvanic battery to the venerable official in order to awaken him will again have to be resorted to.