The Minneapolis journal., 1905-04-26
An Efficient Police Service.

Juuge LAY, assistant to the attorney
general Of the United States, who made
an investigation Of political onditions
in Alaska last summer, urges. strongly
the adoption of system of police some
what similar to that of the northwest
mounted police of Canada. Outside the
limits of incorporated towns there is
In Alaska practically no police service.
There are occasional United States dep
uty marshals, but they are SO few and
lar between, and their facilities for
an effective police. administration SO
limited, that the present condition of
things is, as Judge Day says, "stand-
ing invitation to lawlessness.'
:. While it is doubtful whether the peo-
pie OF Alaska would submit to the ar
bltrary and imperialistic rule of the
northwest mounted police, that organi-
zation has certainly done wonders in
administration Of the law in the Cana
dian northwest. No town Of it's size
is more orderly than Dawson, far
frontier mining town.
One of the secrets of the efficiency
OF the northwest mounted police service
Is that the same organization extends
thruout all the territories. There are
subdivisions, Of course, but the system
IS substantially one, and a co-opera.
tlon OF the various departments as close
and effective as between the different
police districts of city.
A serious fault of our localized mu-
nlcipal police system is that criminals
are frequently passed on from one com.
munity to another and receive immunity
from punishment on condition that they
take themselves out of the jurisdiction
OF the police department. of any par
ticular city. It not infrequently hap
pens that criminals are harbored in one
community to prey upon another-are
allowed to remain in one city with the
understanding that they commit no vio-
lation of the law within that city but
confine their operations to localities out
side. 70 be even more explicit, it is
a long-established complaint against the
police system of St. Paul that persons
known to be criminals have been al
lowed to live there unmolested SO long
as they have confined their criminal
depred dations to Minneapolis, or at least
have not committed any offenses in St..
Paul; and it must be admitted for our
own administration that criminals are
hustled out of town with little or no re-
gard for the communities into which
they may be driven. l.
Under the northwest mounted police
system Of the Dominion territories a
criminal is never driven from one place
to another. There is no object in doing
SO. The same general police service is re-
sponsible for preventing his operations
wherever he may be, and the organiza-
tion is SO thoro and efficient, that he is
as likely to be apprehended IN a crimi-
nal act in one place as in another,
while the closest cooperation in all
parts Of the service is exhibited in the
pursuit Of offenders.
If the state Of Minnesota, for in
stance, could have such system Of
police organization, adjacent centers Of
population could not harbor criminals
to prey upon each other. The organiza-
tion Of the northwest mounted police
is essentially military in character. The
standards are high and very strictly
maintained. There is probably no finer
body of military or semimilit itary men in
existence anywhere in the world than
the northwest mounted police, which
contributed to the British army during
the Boer war a number of the most ef-
fcient and skilful officers engaged on
the British side. t
The Denver News now comedies that,
with a steady market for silver at 65
cents an ounce, silver mining in Colorado