Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-25
CHIEF AUBLE GIVES REASONS
FOR AUGMENTING NUMBERS
Geographically and for Other Reasons
Southern California Draws Many
of Class That Need Watch
ing-More Men Needed

On Sunday mornings when Angelenos
go to church they see the blue-coated'
policeman pacing his beat, and some
wonder, perhaps, if the patroman ever
has Sunday to spend with his family
Then. again. when they see this same
man in the midst of a street fight,
bringing order out of chaos, risking his
life possibly to quell disorder, some
few of us might wonder at his bravery
or his judgment.
These things which a policeman must
do are a slight instance of the respon-
sibilities which rest upon him: for the
policing of a great metropolitan city
is work intricate and unceasing.
In Los Angeles, with a strangely
complex citizenship, patrolling is done
with unusual efficiency; considering the
number of patrolmen and the number
of the people. it can be said that there
is general safety with an inadequate
force, numerically.
In speaking of the police force and
their work of guarding the public safety
in Los Angeles Chief Walter H. Auble
says:
Prevention and Capture
"The duties of a police department
in a large city are of twofold nature
the prevention of crime and the detec-
ton and apprehension of those who
have committed crime.
For the prevention of crime we rely
chiefly upon the patrolmen, and for the
detection and apprehension of those
who have committed crime we rely
principally upon the detectives.
THE number of patrolmen we have
in Los Angeles is inadequate; and
then, too, the location of the city gives
to it a criminal class of poems, Mexi-
cans and professional thieves.
"These men make the work of the
patrolman seem deficient sometimes,
but ii is simply because of lack of
numbers that there is any ineft1ciency.
ut is a fact, too, that the geographic
cal location of Los Angeles makes 1t
very hard city to police properly.
"The great number of insane people
which we have here is accounted for in
the same way that the great number of
criminals which we have in this city
is accounted for; because of the fact
that insane people. or abnormal people,
who are generally some class of GRIM
inal, are of a nervous, wandering dis
position, and, as they move from city
to city, they come nearer and nearer
to Los Angeles and here they must
stop; they can go no farther.
Begin Crime Here
"And many of them commit their first
crimes in this city. They must be taken
care of here, and that is the reason for
the five large insane asylums in this
state.
people who go insane have lived in
this section generally for only rev
years, and 1t is rare case where one
has lived here five years.
For this same reason of our geo.
graphical location we get great num-
ber of criminals from the east.
1.-THE most dangerous of the criminals
which we have here is the 'yegg' class;
these are men, the result of tramping,
and a great majority of them are
young men and are difficult class for
the police to deal with.
"They are especially difficult to de-
tect, for they generally have operated
in suburban cities, where there is no
BertiIlon system of measurement and
when they come here. where they stay
they commit some crime before they
are registered or described
"The most important element in the
detection of crime is in the identifica-
ton, and for this reason we have the
celebrated system or Bertlllon'
BertiIon's Idea
''when Bertillon first suggested
his system he did not have in mind
using 1t for the detection of crime, but
thought that registration should be
kept of everybody. Before the French
police adopted 1t $4,000 tests were made
in which no two were found to be of
the same measurement in every par
ticular.
lone of the chief qualifications for a
detective, and which Capt. Paul Flam-
mer of the detectives is especially effi-
cient in, Is his knowledge of the town
and the people who live here.
''The system organized by Capt
FIammer and Capt Broadhead regu-
iates the number of detectives. In fact
Capt. Broadhead has many of his pa
trolmen in plain clothes very fire.
quently, and from a plain clothes man
10 a detective Is the means OF keeping
the detective force supplied with men
1--WE measure many men here with
the Bertlllon system, and 1t Is our rule
when a plain clothes man sees per-
son around saloons. etc, and " this
man cannot give, or will not give, a
reasonable account of himself TO the