The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-07-24
SHER|FF'S
DETECTIVES
Police Station Home
of DisreputabIe
Sieuths.

Perhaps one of the most popular at
guments why there should be a clean
sweep in the police department, is the
army of stool-pigeons which surrounds
the sheriff and other heads of the de-
partment. The gang of hangers-on
around the police station appears to be
growing as election approaches and at
tracts the attention of persons whose
business takes them to the station.
Visit the place at any hour of the
day or night and one sees number OF
half-whites, Portuguese, Porto Ricans
and an occasional negro, in the rece1v-
ing office or 1oafing around the en-
trance Go upstairs into the office Of
the sheriff's assistant and a similar
collection of nondescripts is to be seen,
apparently waiting for somebody or
something to turn up.
They are the detectives of the de-
partment and though they are never
identified with a case and are never
detected in the act of earning an honest
livelihood, always seem to have money
to burn in the qualification of their
own pleasurable inclinations.
Just why the presence of this dis
reputable element is permitted around
the station precincts is a mystery, and
it is a mystery which has for some time
past been exercising the minds of many
thinking people of the city.
Discussing the matter recently,
welI-known citizen said:
There ought to be a general clear
ance of all the old heads of the police
department, if only for the purpose of
+Ia ali ton of@ kne ~
toughs and buns who infect it at
present. The army of them is growing
larger all the time and Sheriff Brown
doesn't seem to have the nerve to fire
them out. Many of them are drawing
salaries as specials. Many Of them
possess police badges. 1t is good graft
for them for all they have to do when
they want a piece of money is to sally
out and catch a crowd of gamblers
and then talk business with them.
These nondescript sleuths, often for
the fun of the thing, visit the dwellings,
of natives, flash their stars, talk big
and depart, after having bluffed the
ignorant folks into giving them what
ever they asked for, by way of earn
ing their good opinion.
These men in nearly every case are
Ddu eggs, dlSSO1ule anu
al. Many of them keep women, most
OF them are inveterate gamblers. And
yet Sheriff Brown surrounds himself
with them and pays them the public's
money to help enforce the law.
They appear to have some kind of
hold over Brown. Many Of them have
been supported by him, as sheriff, for
years, so long that they have got to be
5oh 1o III
find the heart to kick out of a way Of
gaining a livelihood. It is probable,
also, that some of them have such
knowledge of the inner workings of the
police department, as to make them
invaluable to the sheriff and his assist
ant.
Have you noticed that when one of
these ferreters out of crime is fired for
cause, he, like the cat in the song,
always comes back? You couldn't de-
tach one of this kidney from the car
case with a stick of dynamite. Funny
isn't it? I've seen one of these gen.
try, recently rolling drunk outside the
station house and not policeman
dared lock him up. Then the sheriff
took a look at him and told him he'd
better be careful"
Personally I've got nothing against
Brown but / am certain that however
we'll be fu1fiIs the duties of his office,
his stool-pigeon army will prevent the
law being enforced as it should be-
For this reason Honolulu wants a new
sheriff and wants him badly. It seems
to be a certainty that while Brown is in
office the absurdly large police appro-,
priation will continue to be sapped by
these para sites and the notice depart-
ment will remain unclean"