The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-07
MAKING THE POLICE EFFICIENT
GEN. BINGHAM REPORTS WHAT
HE HAS DONE IN 3 MONTHS.
A Thousand Men Added TO the Force on
P~atol-Traflc Rules Slmpllned-statis.
tics by Machlne-Card Records OF Men
Squad Abolition Helps Discipline.

uC1 Nv VluplllIiC- SaIu NNNpl VI 'AN-
Squad Abolition Helps Discipline.
Police Commissioner Bingham made pub
lie last evening the quarterly report OF the
Police Department, which was forwarded
to Mayor Mcclellan. 1t covers the three
months of Gen. Bingham g administration
The report says:
@On January I, 1905, the consolidated
report of the force showed 2,207 policemen
on so-called detail" duty. This means
detailed away from regular police duty.
On March 81, 1906, this number bad been
reduced to Lei, a gain to the city of about
half of the force on so-called detail duty.
This number will. it is hoped, be still further
reduced.
This reduction in the number of details
involved the abolition of a number Of So
called squads These squads are wrong
in principle, because the men are simply
detailed to pay special attention TO one par
ticular point Of police work and nothing
else. In some cases the work Of these
SQUADS was much easier than regular police
duty. Hence the abolition Of them is to
the benefit of the discipline of the force and
the equalizing Of the work Of all the men
on the force. The work which they did is
to be done by the regular police force, and
particularly by patrolmen on their beats.
If the patrolman does his duty there will
be very little need of special squads.
Some Of the squa dis abolished were
called: The vice squad, pistol practice
squad. theatre squad, newsboy squad,
mendioant squad, ~ferryboat squad, China
town squad, ~frecracker squad, bicycle
squad and the so-called shoody squad.
at. -.. La;p1 ra1arIaJ q tho norraot
principle Of administration that the city
should accept free quarters for it's station
houses, the Twenty-third precinct in the
Grand Central Station has been abolished.
The men who composed that precinct have
been distributed to the three adjoining
precincts and are now confined to perform
ing police work outside of the building
line, leaving the railroad company to police
it's own property inside. This has not
decreased the efficiency of police work in
that part Of the city, which is, in fact, better
policed than before.
The Forty-ninth sub-precinct, located
in Borough Hall, Brooklyn, has also been
abolished. This was the headquarters of
the Brooklyn traffic squad. The traffic
squad in Brooklyn have been placed under
the immediate control of the Second Deputy
Commissioner and the men who reported
at the Forty-ninth sub-precinot now report
to the precincts in which they do duty.
@Patrolmen doing duty on private
property, such as docks and steamship
piers, have been taken of this work and
placed on duty at street crossings at the
river front.
Better police protection has been al
forded The Bronx and other outlying sec
tons of the greater city by sending to
these sections mounted policemen, who
can cover a larger territory than policemen
on foot.
"The upper West Side is better policed
than it was two months ago. The number
of policemen in each precinct in the greater
city has been materially increased since
the work of abolishing details began.
Bicycle policemen attached to precincts
do the same patrol and reserve duty now
no reserve duty. Mounted rhen also do
reserve duty now. Formerly they did
none.
THE practice of permitting patrolmen
TO report their presence from patrol boxes
had become very much abused and these
reports have been done away with, except
in cases where a patrolman Is compelled
to leave his post for a short time, in which
case he is required TO obtain permission
from the station house. BY the abolition
of these telephone reports, which were not
effective. a number Of patrolmen have be-
come available for proper patrol duty.
"Only emergency calls are now sent
from the police telephone boxes, and the
desk sergeant attends to these.
"Forty-eight patrolmen formerly en-
ployed as guards on patrol wagons are now
doing active duty. Patrolmen on reserve
now act as guards,
The Brooklyn Bridge is we'll policed-
better policed than it ever has been before,
1t takes a considerable number of police
men to handle the crowds there, and in my
opinion the work ought 10 be done by special
officers employed by the railroad companies
operating cars on the bridge.
THE Detective Bureau has been reorgan-
lied. and the detective sergeants who were