Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-14
POLICE OF VARIOUS PLACES.
Their Numerical Strength. Cost and
Test of Efficiency.

rest Oh EImC1encys
From the New York sun.
There are 6,4OO New York policemen. a
larger number than the force of any other
city in the country and larger number by
several hundred than the various divisions
of the Greater New York had collectively
before consolidation. There are $500 po-
licemen in the city of Paris, the proportion
of police to inhabitants being larger than It
is in the city of London. There are 6O.Oo0
policemen in Great Britain. OF these Eng
land has Al ,332; Scotland, 4744; ireland.
T. 49,; Wales, 1,2S3; the Isle of Man, SO.
Liverpool has 1885; Glasgow, 1920; Dublin,
1.2i5. and Manchester. 1O2S.
The number of policemen in the city Of
London Is 18.443, according to the last Off
cial report, but the police district of Lon
don includes a large amount of outlying
rural and suburban territory with popula-
ton OF /, 900, exclusive of the population
of London proper, which is 400, coo. The
London police district covers an area of
twelve miles by fifteen. with 1000 miles of
streets or roads, and the duty Of patroIling
these accounts very largely for the ex-
tensive membership of the force when COM
pared with that of most American cities.
Chicago has $3.50 policemen and the aver
age number of arrests in year amounts to
1000, though during the period of the
worlds fair it was considerably higher
Boston has 200 policemen; Baltimore. 900:
St. Louis, LOO: Philadelphia, 1900; Cincin-
natl. 600: Cleveland, $50: Detroit $50:
Washington. 600: San Francisco. 300; Pitts
burg, 500, and New Orleans, 32O.
Among foreign cities Paris stands first in
the number of policemen compared with
the whole population: and Palermo, Italy,
stands lowest. with the smallest and least
expensive police force. Capital cities, as
rule. require more police protection than
other cities even Ola larger population for
as the number of transients in a city in
creaSes the demand for police service adj
vances and the expenses of maintenance in
crease cOrreSItpn1i0prlV The nf Off
Cheney in police department is not the
number Of men engaged. but their capacity
for making arrests of the right persons. at
| the right time. and under conditions which
viii be most favorable TO their discharge If
innocent or their conviction If guilty A
recent report of the Chicago chief of police
showed the number of arrests in that city
for the crime of homicide to have been
12o within the period covered. OF those ar
rested. three We're executed. twenty were
sentenced to terms of imprisonment nino
We're sent to the reformatory at Pontiac
seventeen were acquitted and forty-six
cases were still pending at the time of the
report.
In New York the number of arrests in n
year for felony amounts to about /, 900 by
the detective bureau, and the number of
convictions from such arrests is about 400,
The number of arrests for homicide in a
year-homicide or MURDERS about 400 and
the proportion of convictisn is decidedly
larger than 1t is in the city of Chicago,
which expends for its police department in
a year about one-third of the sum paid BY
New York
The expense of the Philadelphia police de-
partment is S3,1OO.0OO a year, and the ex-
pense of the Boston police department is
81, 150,O0O. or one-half the expense of the
Philadelphia department. The present pop
ulation of Boston is estimated at so 600.
and that of Philadelphia 100000 ReIa-
lively. therefore, the Boston police depart
ment is the more expensive of the two, and
| this apparent discrepancy is due to the fact
| that the number of transient visitors to
Boston is considerably larger than the
| as home city" the duties of the police
/ department of which are chiefly in the line
of maintaining order. The expense of tho
$12oo0,0o0, approximately, of which So
10000 Is for police salaries, 100000 for
supplies and the balance for rentals and
contingencies