St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1911-12-13
A State ConstabuIary.

The recent buglaries in this sec
ton, two in this town and one in
Fair Haven, show most forcibly how
little real protection is afforded
citizen. by our present police sys-
TEN. A man has his horse stolen,
and his remedy is what? He notifies
the authorities and they come, look
over the empty stable, telephone
little, but the real job falls upon the
loser of the horse himself, and if he
ever sees his property again 1t Will
be we'll for him to exercise his best
powers. All over Vermont we are
paying taxes for protection to our
lives and property, yet how little we
really receive in return. True we
have in each town constables, JUS
tees of the peace, ETC., and when the
country was new and crimes in the
rural regions infrequent, these fore
es were ample to deal With the Or
binary forms of crime occurring
then.
But today, when the city and
country are parts OF each other, ana
criminals are bold, defiant and Of
ten organized into bands, these
means are wholly inadequate. A
swift descent is made, generous
stable'' who knows (usually) moth
ing of criminals or their methods is
utterly at sea. He is unskilled III the
use of weapons, and would be timid
in their use if he were. He has had
no practice in detective work, so
that unless actually caught ION the
job the criminals have clear field
and a ready escape. AS they know
that the chances for detection are ex-
tremely small it serves to encourage
burglars and thieves in their pre-
datory operations, and the people
who pay taxes for protection GER
tainly do not get value received for
their money.
What is the remedy? In our view
it lies in the establishment Of a state
constabulary; something like that in
Pennsylvania but on less extensive
plan. Could not a force of IL
trained men Cor possibly more) be
chosen and paid a yearly salary?
They should possess detective abili-
ty,, be fearless, adopts in the use OF
arms, and be allowed to contract nee
essary expenses for travel, aid, etc.
Two of these could be assigned to
each of the following towns: Ben
nington, Rutland, Burlington, Brat
tleboro, White River Junction, and
ST. Johnsbury. They should be pro-
vided with suitable weapons, blood
hounds, etc.
If a serious crime be committed in
any section, the local officials could
summon the nearest force by tele-
phone and in short time, at least
two trained officers would be on
the ground, ready to act "before
the scent was cold - These if nee
essary, could secure the cooperation
of the others and the detection and
punishment of crime would no long
er be the exception but rather the
rule. The expenses of such a force
would be more than met by the cost
of a single trial of a murderer or
burglary case involving much time.
It's chief value would lie in it's deter
rent effect, by which less crimes
would be attempted and consequent
ly less trials to punish the perpetra-
tors.
If criminals knew that after COM
hitting a. serious crime, that in a
few hours half a dozen trained, fear
less men would be on their trail,
they would hesitate in their act and
doubtless seek state with less eff
Gent system. With crime rampant
and our courts in almost continuous
session to punish it, is it not full
time that more efficient plan for
police protection were at least con-
sidered? The days of Noah and
Moses are past. We need a modern
system to meet modern conditions
[Poultney Journal.
SuoceSSfv1I Farmer