The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-04-10
OTHERS SLATED
TO WALK PLANK
Lively Shakeup in the Min
neapolis Police Depart
ment Is Promised.

There are things doing in the Min
neapoliS police department. Edward J.
Conroy, the superintendent of police,
may be a new man, but he is nobodys
dead one. Conroy has an eye like the
proverbial hawk and while he says lit
tie, he is thinking deeply.
For three or four weeks attention of
the superintendent has been directed
to the stool pigeon game in a manner
that left him no option but to act if
he intended to live up to his declara-
tons. Detectives German and Vaughn
have been summarily fired from the
Minneapolis police department They
were discharged because it had been
proved to the satisfaction of the su-
|,perintendent that the stool pigeon work
in which they had been engaged was
corrupt and in no sense legitimate de-
tective work.
Evidence of Jobbery.
Now it develops that there are other
detectives on the slate with crosses
against their names. The fact is that
Conroy has discovered enough evidence
indicating jobbery by which men have
been railroaded into the penitentiary
for the ACKNOWLEDGMENT of detective
officers to convince him that the stool
pigeon game must stop and that with
out any unnecessary delay There are
recent instances in which men I'M
doubtedly innocent have been made to
figure as brigands, assassins and high
Waymen for the purpose of boosting
police regulations.
The police administration of Min
neapolis is a curiously composite
proposition. There are men in the
department who have been connected
with it for many years Some of them
have ideas of police work that are hap
PLY nearly obsolete. They hesitate at
nothing to prove the truth of an asser-
ton once made, concerning the guilt
or innocence of a person arrested by
them charged with a crime. There iS
morning especially new in this. 1t is
done in good many cities in this
country. The custom is, and has been,
to permit the detective a great deal
of license in bolstering up his own
case. But where men who have new
er before committed crime are inveigled
by polio stool pigeons into criminal
acts and subsequently convicted on the
testimony of the stool pigeon who is
himself jObbed and double crossed by
the detectives who have sought his
friendship and aid, there is something
too essentially rotten in the proposition
to pass muster with the police super
intendent whose motto is: Fair treat
ment for ALL"
Conroy After Them.
Thus it is that Conroy, superintend-
ent of police in Minneapolis, is out aft
er the four f1ushers-and there ara
0f
In this connection Mayor Haynes, when
he was elected, distinctly stated that
he did not propose to ride rough shod
over the feelings of officers of rank and
file in the department. He expressed
the opinion that where so much prun-
ing had been required as Mayor Jones
had indicated, there was no doubt at
all that there existed a much more
preaching necessity for police recon-
struction.
But I am not going at this thing
rough shod," said Mayor Haynes. q
think it is necessary that the mayor
should know the men he has working
with him. He ought to know whether
the material he is dealing with is good
or bad When he finds that 1t is good
he should manifest his appreciation.
When he finds that it is bad he should
unhesitatingly cut it out There will be
more changes in the police department.
AT present it is a matter of delibera-
ton and study"
Conroy, the Sleuth.
Superintendent Conroy is the hard
est working man on the police force Of
Minneapolis. He is a rotund little
chap who loves his ease and is dis
posed to be hale fellow we'll met with
everybody in spite of his rather Puri-
tanical inclinations. If Conroy had
been able to assume a disufse, which
is impossible in view of his physical
conformation, he might have attained
reputation as a sleuth. But Conroy
depends for his information, not on
his ability to disguise himself, but in
the marvellous celebrity with which he
is able to duck into back doors and
dawn upon astonished gatherings with
out its being suspected that he was
anywhere within five miles of the To-
cality.
Through the glaze of virtue with