The age-herald., 1902-05-14
$500 OF THOSE
 ARRESTED ARE NEGROES
Chief Recommends That Department Be Equipped With Gamewell and Bertillon Systems-Asks String
 ent Laws Against Gambling.

lice Austin, submitted to the
 board of police commissioners last night, shows that there were total of 10,6SO arrests last year. Of this num- Der GSOO were negroes and SO3O whites. During 1900 there were 1Oe35 arrests, an increase for 1901 Of 595.
 Based on the last census figures the chiefs report shows that about 2S per cent of Birminghams population was ar rested during the year, or about three out of every ten citizens. But such comparison is unfair as has been shown repeatedly when the question of bad Birmingham" was brought up.
 From this number of arrests the city got Q net profit of s1O, ,591.9S. The pay roll of the department was $40, 4390S for the year, and the sources of incomes were as follows:
 Fires ana feels collected. ........., ,$25, ,S79 80 Stolen property recovered 10. 49.9l, Fines and fees remitted .......... 11,s14.35 Extra days remitted ...... ........ 2917O6
 Total. .... $51, ,031 .O6
 Chief Austin makes q number of recom- mendations in his report. Among them are:
 That more stringent gambling laws be passed.
 That no fines for carrying concealed weapons be remitted.
 rrboF tho 11a ao,iirnod with the Gamewell and Bertillon system.
 That the chief be allowed to name his own personal staff.
 CRIMINAL RECORD.
 In giving the reasons for Birminghams enormous criminal record Chief Austin says:
 "I respectfully call your attention to the tabulated statement in this report and ask that you note that an over whelming majority of the many classes of crime with which we have to contend are committed by negroes.
 This is not strange after moments meditation and duo consideration given to the fact, that about onc-half of our pop ulation is negroes. How many negroes cut of Birrninsham's many thousands are possessed with intelligence sufficiently strong to have them strive against the commission Of crime, instead of plUnging it forward?
 Note for yourself from statistics that they not only lead in the commission of is steadily increasing. The uneducated of half century back did not commit one-tenth tha crime as those of the pres ent day.
 Take the most heinous crimes such as murder, robbery, rape, assault with intent to murder, burglary, grand lar ceny, etc, and see the difference in the number committed by blacks and whites.
 "Who and what class make up our crim- inal dockets? Is it not the negroes and the lower element of whites?
 Birmingham Is called bad" Why? be- cause the greater portion of the outside world are not yet awakened to the fact that she is no longer the little town of a few years back, but is city, and large one, too. both in population and in- dustries, and also the outside world does not know that Birmingham, with her eighty-five thousand inhabitants has but forty-seven patrolmen, and that these men are on duty twelve hours each; that there are only twenty-three men to look after the preservation of order and peace of this vast multitude of whites and blacks. The Birmingham police department has one patrolman to every thirty-seven hun dred people. There were 10 63O arrests during the past year, of which number 66O0 were blacks, leaving about 1000 whites. Take any city in the United States that has the varied population of Birmingham, and compare the criminal records, taking into consideration the crime and color and class of perpetrator, and I will show you that our city Is not as bad criminally as others.
 Remember that Birmingham has more mlnes furnaces. and other industries, dhat employ mostly negroes) than any other city In the South.
 New York City has one patrolman to about 300 people; Chicago has one patrol man to about 300 people, and Buffalo. N. Y., has one patrolman to about 700 people.
 Statistics show us that crime is not always most prevalent in the largest cities, but criminals seek refuge tbere owing to the less chance O. apprehension. They commit these crimes in smaller places, and usually the strength of a po- lice department governs them largely. i.,,