The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-03

Superintendent Kruger has fire.
tHy38I quentlyat night had the patrolmen
- discard their uniforms and APP
pear on their beats in civilians dress. which
is technically known among policemen as
doing plain-clothes duty. To run their beats
without uniforms greatly aids in arresting
suspicious characters, for the officers can
get close upon them before they realize that
there is a policeman in the neighborhood.
The unpleasant part of this plain-clothes
duty is that the patrolmen are supposed to
stop all persons after midnight and inquire
of them where they are going, where they
have been. what their names, etc, and.
in truth, the man who is held up is required
TO give a short history of his life. When
the officers do not have on their uniforms
this questioning of people causes no end of
trouble, for the man who is out after mid
night is on the outlook for highwaymen,
and when he sees the police approaching
him he Is as suspicious of them as they are
of him. Sometimes the complications that
arise are rather amusing, while again they
take on a more serious nature. There is not
a policeman on the force who does not con-
tend that il is a wonder that some officer
has not been shot by a citizen who thought
he was a hold-up man. 1t seems hard for
people to realize that a patrolmen can APP
pear without his long, dOuble-breasted
overcoat covered with the shining brass but
tons and a metal badge of huge dimensions.
And the policeman often has as hard a time
explaining who he is as the man who is
going home in the wee hours of the night
does to prove hh identity.
2 \
Some weeks ago two policemen who were
doing plain clothes duty were sitting on a
bread box under the shed of a grocery store
in the northern part of the city to pro-
tect themselves from the weather. 1t was
a blustery night, and the rain and snow,
together with the cold wind that was blow
ing, made it anything but pleasant to be
out. The officers had not been in their
place of shelter long before they saw an
individual sauntering down the middle of
the street, and as 1t was considerably after
midnight they started out 70 stop him and
get a short history of his life; but he saw
them first, and before they got within 200
yards of him he had a pistol leveled and
Their.
Policemen have eyesight like cats and
therefore can see as well at night as they
can in the daytime. These policemen saw
that their man with the gun was Well
uTtSSSu anu 0du nODt VI IL dllS VI al
criminal. When they asked him who he
was he, in return, asked them who they
were. They tried to explain that they
were policemen, but as he could not see
their uniforms he would not believe them.
Finally he said If they wanted TO learn
where he was going that they could follow
him at a short distance, and as he only
lived a square away 1t would not be much
of a walk for them.
In the course Of the conversation one of
the officers recognized the mans voice, and,
upon calling his name he acknowledged it,
and when he heard who the patrolman was
everything was all right. 1t seems that he
was a business man, who had been de-
tanned at his store rather late. He had all
his money with him, as we'll as about $500
worth of diamonds. AS he had been held
up the year before, he was suspicious and
was carrying his pistol in his hand ready
for a highwayman. and when the policemen
without their uniforms appeared he natur-
ally thought he was to be robbed again.
There is a policeman who runs a north
side beat, and has been on it so long that
nearly everyone who lives in the district
knows him. The other night he was out
without his uniform, and he and his partner