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

The Tribune yesterday morning pre-
sented a carefully prepared compari"
son between the record Of the first year
Of Chief Sheets of the Police depart
ment and the last year Of Chief Lynch
Of that same department. There may
be some anger with regard to the pres
entation Of this record; that anger conf
ing from Mr.. Lynch and his friends,
and from the official conspirators who
for so many months have been in such
a shameful plot against the peace and
good order of this city through their
misuse of the public judicial machinery
in their political attacks upon Chief
Sheets,
When it is shown that the burglaries,
which numbered 223 in 1905, were re
duced in 1906 to 79;. that the highway
robberies (holdups) were reduced
from 60 of 1905 TO but II in 1906, and
that the confidence games Of bunko
steerers were reduced from the IL OF 1903
to but in 1906, fair idea of the eff
fective work that Chief Sheets has done
may be gathered.
The record with respect TO following
up the criminals and landing them in
the penitentiary is equally favorable to
Chief Sheets. During the year 1905
Chief Lynch and his department sent
y men to the penitentiary for various
crimes, and 81 to the county Jail for
various misdemeanors. Contrasted with
this is the record of Chief Sheets dur
| Ia, a. 80 \, o2, ;nic
in 1906, when he and mis- department
sent to the penitentiary 46 criminals.
and TO the county Jail 81 msdemean-
ants. This sustains and supplements the
record Of crimes committed, in excellent
form.
But besides all this and a matter not
of official record, is the fact that dur
ing Chief Lynch S last year, robbing
gambling games where laboring men
were steered and feeced were numerous,
open, and notorious; each had its gang
of procurers and steerers to entrap the
unwarv and persuade them TO the gam
bling table and consequent loss of their
coins. These joints, by the means of
the various disreputable methods em
/ ployed TO recruit victims for them, and
with no opposition from the police de"
/ partment, were thronged every night,
and especially Saturday nights, when
the workingmeu had been paid off.
! The Morrislte administration calmly
looked upon this with approval, and Nor
! ris was the candidate Of that element
in his renomination and in his canvass
for reelection. Chief Lynch looked
upon all this with calm approval, and
did nothing whatever TO protect the
unwary or the general public, or in any
way to mitigate the shameful robbery
| and open swindlIng OF those thieving
| joints
And there is yet another comparison
| to be made which is equally in favor of
! Chief Sheets. That is with respect to
the SherIff's Office under Frank Emery
! This officer has under him the largest
! force of deputies that any sheriff ever
had in Utah; yet in 1905 that Office Sc
cured Jail sentences for only ) men,
and prison sentences for only s; in
! 1906 the Sheriff aud his department
sent II men 10 the county Jail and
TO the State prison. This compared
with the record Of Chief Sheets and
his department for the cingle
year of 1906. in sending 46 men TO
Jail shows paucity Of results at a max
imum Of cost which is sore affection
upon the public. 1t also is a crushing
commentary upon the impudcnce of the
Sheriff in entering upon the crusade
against Chief Sheets under pretense
that he is not an efficient officer; and
upon County Attorney Hanson, who
has taken this inefficient Sheriff under
his wing to Join him in the raid upon
the efficient chief Of police, whose rec
ord puts the record of both of them to
utter rout and shame