The Washington times., 1906-05-02
A Day Patrol of 100 Men.


advance in the pay of patrolmen,
which now pend before Congress, are
given an extra interest by the as
saults committed in highways be-
yond the city in the course of the
past few weeks
That the county is not sufficiently
we'll patrolled is manifest.
That life and property are alike
exposed to preventible danger is
the teaching of hard experience.
That the men now assigned to
that duty are underpaid is clear
from the last cursory examination
of pay in other cities
Washington is not sufficiently
safeguarded for these reasons.
First--An exasperating and cost
ly confusion of authority prevails.
There is a separate police force at
the Capitol. Another guards the
several department buildings. An
other patrols the parks. Another
dips into the local field to guard
the President, arrest counterfeiters,
and perform other special services.
The last, the real police force, is
guardian over everything else and
whenever any of the special forces
does not reach far enough, is ex-
pected to extend its care over those
special departments; as is exempli-
fled in the detail of thirty-eight
men to guard the White House.
Second-Although the whole num-
ber of men employed to protect the
Capital city is large, the amount of
actual protection obtained is dam
gerously small. In other words, a
force which is probably large
enough to protect Washington
Counting the enrolment in all the
organizations indicated save that of
the Secret Service) is so dissipated
by separate organizations as to
leave the District without adequate
defense against wrongdoers.
How important that fact is will
be plain from study OF the pres
ent assignments of District police
men. The force included on June
80, 1905, 692 officers and privates.
The administrative corps consisted
of fifty-eight men, leaving, as the
number of privates theoretically
available for patrol duty, 634. On
the day specifed-as on every day
before and since-that body was re-
duced by the following allotments:
Details as watchmen, clerks,
agents of District officials,
workmen and similar capac-
ltleS ..-..-----....... 93
Post assignments. ts.............. So
Detective service. 20
Total ..................... 195
Thus, nIy 439 men are left for
patrol duty. Even that number is
reduced by the following details:
Average number unavailable
through sickness. ss........ %
On leave under the law. w... 80
Suspended 2
LOidl 81
The men actually available for
duty on beats is, therefore, only
1892 When divided into reliefs, en-
ploying the greater force in the
nighttime, on the principle that
marauders move un6er the cover
of darkness, the deduction is ninety
two Privates to patroi sixty-nine
square miles of District territory
during the daytime and 100 as the
greatest number on duty at any
ore time in the course of the night.
No wonder the Superintendent
seeks to have those of his men who
are agents for the inspectors of
licenses, or helpers to the pound
master, or photographers, or acting
as inspectors of medicine, phar-
macy, and dentistry, or clerks, or
what not besides, restored to him
as patrolmeni
To do that will, he thinks, require
special legislation to accomplish it.
If that be true, the legislation
OtSiA1 ~ NC 4lcd NllnOub ana
Congress- ought further to consider
and find means of correcting the
confu ion of authority which ex-
lists here, enlarge the force so that
less than 100 patrolmen Will not be
expected TO cover seventy square
miles, and increase the pay of the
patrolmen so that the service will
be reasonably attractive to good
men.
There is much for Congress to do
to adjust the police protection of
the Capital TO its needs and it ought
to be done right away.
Father Toms" May March.
= It will be interesting to learn just