The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-05-14
CRIMINALS AND POLICE.

CRIMINALS AND POLICE,
The opposition press and especially
the evening church organ and the
morning Smoot organ. arc constantly
proclaiming to the world that Salt
Lake City is a place where reckless
and unrestrained criminality prevails,
whore the police are paralyzcd and in
effective, and where murder and all
sorts Of crime are allowed their sway
practically unchecked, 1t is insisted
day after day by that press that salt
Lake City is Il safe harbor and refuge
of criminals. where they can apply
their lawlcss activities without much
danger of molestation, where the police
arc so inexpert and so easily baffled
that any sort of an adroit criminal can
have things about his own way.
AT the same time that the opposition
press is doing this kind Of work, Il
work that it has been doing for upward
of five years now, the lament is made
that the city is full of thugs, toughs
of every shade, and desperadoes Of
II does not seem to occur to that press
that the very conditions which they
deplore have been fostered. encourage
and helped by themselves, They have
insisted that the very state of affairs
which they now pretend exists in this
city is the natural result of the alleged
ineffectiveness of our police force;
whereas it is the effect of the accept.
ance Of their invitation by criminals
of every class.
The facts are, however, that no such
conditions exist in any extraordinary
degree in Salt Lake City. IL IS true
that we have crime here; il is true that
some of this crime is lust as reck.
less, Just as murderous, Just as damn
able as like crimes committed else
where. But the objection which we
make is that unfair emphasis is placed
upon crime in Salt Lake City, and this
place is held up as though reeking
with criminality and infested with
bands of criminals of the most evil
character, and that these criminals pur
sue their lawless course practically
without hindrance.
All that gives an absolutely false i'm
preston. That crime exists in this
city. as it does in every metropolis.
and especially in any city that is an
international runway. as Salt Lake
City is, experience has proved. But
it is not true that Salt Lake City is
crime infested above other cities of its
Importance and population. II is not
true that the police here are ineficieDt;
1t is not true that they allow crime TO
stalk the streets unchecked, the CON
trary is the fact. The police force
Of this city is a good force, accord
ing 10 its numbers; it does good work;
il misses the catching Of criminals as
little as any force in the country, pro
portonately.
The very fact that Salt Lake City is
a runway of the nations, that all peo;
of the globe, would properly suggest
that the police force Of Salt Lake City
should he very much larger proportion
ately to the population than the po-
lice force Of other cities. In fact,
however. the ratio of police to the
population is less here than elsewhere.
Our police force is smaller than it
ought to be. But that it is Ineffective
as compared with other police forces,
that it fails more than other police fail,
is wholly untrue. The Salt Lake po-
lice force is doing and has been
doing first class work. 1t misses
sometimes, as what police force
does not1 But on the whole its work
is satisfactory, crime is represscd as
we'll here as elsewhere (having here
no reference to polygamy), and on the
whole the police force of this city is
to be commended rather than censured.
and this. we believe, is the view that
any candid, fair-minded person. com
petent 10 pass upon the question, Will
anDrOVe