The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-30

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Comparison of the record OF crime
in Salt Lake, as shown by the records
in the archives OF the police depart
ment, between the last year of the ad
r,inistration Of Chief W. j. Lynch and
the first year of Chief George A.
Sheets, shows the foregoing result. The
record has been carefully compiled, and
is complete answer to the howl that
various kinds to flourish in Zion.
During the last year OF Chief
Lynch g administration there were 223
burglaries committed in Salt Lake.
During the first year OF Chief Sheets,
who succeeded Lynch, there were only
70. The records of the department
show this beyond the possibility of
question or cavll.
Lynch g Reign Of Terror.
During the last year of Chief
Lynch s administration there were six
ty-fve highway robberies In the city,
During the first year of Chief Sheets S
administration there were but twelve
highway robberies. The reign of ter
ror created by highway robbers during
the closing months Of Chief Lynch 3
administration is still fresh in the pub
lie mind. Citizens were being stood up
and robbed by masked highwaymen
nightly; staid, sober and pe3ceable cit
liens walked home at night in the MD
dle of the street with Tevolvers In their
hands and saw in every shadow and
heard in every rustic Of leaf pros
pective murderous highwayman. The
scion Of distinguished Mormon family
was murdered in the street.
Gambling was wide open, and the
IL h
thugs, highway robbers. tiuborn gam
blers, race track touts and crooks of
all sorts and descriptions. The police
were powerless, and few If any of the
highwavmep who terrorized citizens
and made life unsafe were ever cap
tured by the impotent police depart
nent of which Billy Lynch was the
head. Chief Sheets closed gambling,
and ran the crooks ont of town. Crime
stopped.
AS to Bunko Games.
The consprators against Chief Sheets
have laid particular stress upon the al
legation that he has permitted bunko
men and confidence operators to work
in Salt Lake unmolested; but the in
delible records of the police department
show that during the last year Of Chief
Lynch s administration seventeen cases
OF bunko games were reported TO the
police, while during the first year of
Chief Sheets administration only six
cases were reported. One of these was
the McWhirter case, which has been
used by the anti-Sheets conspirators as
the basis of their fight on the chief
In this connection it is interesting to
recall that Lynch would have been
given his old position at the head of
the department had the Smoot machine
succeeded in jamming its fire and po-
lice bill through the recent Legislature.
Lynch is brother-in-law of Governor
Cutler, is chairman Of the State land
board, and has held public Office from
a time whereof memory Of man run
slated for the chief g Office had the
Legislature turned the police depart
ment over to the tender mercies Of the
Federal machine.
Some More Comparisons.
There are some more interesting
comparisons, however, which go to
show the improvement which has been
made in the local police service since
Chief Sheets took Office. During the
last year of his administration Chief
Lynch and his subordDates sent TWEEN
ty-seven men TO the penitentiary and
twenty-one to the county Jail. During
the first year Of the Sheets administra-
tion forty-siI men were sent to the
penitentiary and tweuty-one to the
county jail,
Sheriff G, Frank Emery, the active
man In the conspiracy against Chief
Sheets, hasn't a record for detecting
and furnishing crime sufficient to cause
mis- bosom to palpitate with pride. The
Sheriff has the largest force of dep
uties that any, Sheriff ever had; they
are so many that they almost stumble
over each other in the Sherif's Office
Yet in 1905 the Sheriff's Office secured
Jail sentences for only FIVE mon and
prison sentences for only eight. They
beat this record slightly in 1906, when
they sent fourteen men to the county
jail and eight to the State prison.
Such are the facts in connection with
the policing Of Salt Lake City and
county for the years 1905 and 1906.