Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-14
CLEVELAND POLICE METHODS
ARE URGED FOR LOS ANGELES

SAN PEDRO, Feb. 9.-[Editor Her
add: L have been much interested In
reading an account lately of the meth
DDS OF the chief of police of Cleveland,
o., which was called to my mind after
reading in The Herald this morning OF
the arrest of a woman by two police
men who, without warrant, entered
her room and forcibly placed her under
arrest and locked her up as vagrant.
If this is true it certainly was most
unwarranted proceeding and should be
looked into by the police commission.
The method in Cleveland is refreshing
after reading such an account. In the
year 1907 there were 10000 arrests In
the city of Cleveland. OF these 80 per
cent were lost in court, 24,000 out of
10000 were discharged, either the per-
sons having done nothing to be punish
able for or there not being enough evil
dence to hold them.
Who knows how much suferlng,
trouble and disgrace followed each or
these $4,000 persons and their friends
and relations. There Is no way to COM
pute it. 1t often means the loss of
job to a man with a family dependent
upon his days work to be brought into
court upon a charge which the police
cannot Substantiate. AS we have said
in 1907 there were 10000 arrests in
Cleveland. In 1908 there were 10OS5.
This is a startling change on police
methods. 1t is more than startling, 1t
is revolutionary, and Cleveland, as far
as anyone can see, is just as orderly
and well behaved as it was before.
Showing that two-thirdS of the arrests
made by the police were unnecessary
and useless, and there is room for the
belief that Cleveland was better pro-
tected in 1908 than in 1907.
When q man is found drunk in Cleve-
land by a policeman he is taken home
if his address is known. If not, he is
taken to the station, but he is neither
arrested nor taken into court. Early In
the morning he is Weakened up, asked
where he lives, warned, reproved and
sent home. This Is the famous Sun
rise court" of Cleveland. They sun
RISE twice as many prisoners as ever
get into police court. Chief Kohler,
out of an experience of more than
twenty years as policeman, declares
that arrests for drunkenness increase
the evil instead of reducing it. He says
a drinking man will inevitably walk
straight out of court and get drunk
again. Chief Kohler is not yet salts
field with the reduction in arrests. He
wants to eliminate so per cent of 30,O00
instead of &c per cent. In every case
in which the man would be released by
force that they will not arrest the
man. In the sixteen months of the
new regime which had passed when
this article, was written only five per-
sons who had been "golden-ruled" by
the police had been afterward ar
rested.
The conclusion is that other cities
no quieter more decent or orderly than
Cleveland are making sc per cent more
arrests than they need to wasting mil
lions of public money in useless fees,
causing untold distress and hardships
which result in no benefit to anyone.
In the month of February, 1907, there
were 2257 arrests in Cleveland. In
February, 1908, there were S29, and in
February, 1909, there were 391. The
latter figure is about one-sixth of 2257.
This is an appalling difference. If
crime had increased In Cleveland in
any like proportion the while country
would have heard of 1t. 1t would have
been blazoned abroad as the logical
result of criminal complatsance to the
criminal classes. There has been no
such increase.
SOPHIA HILDRETH.