Evening star., 1915-03-14
Boys Now Help Regular Po-
Iicemen in Maintain
ing the Law.
LADS ARE ORGANIZED
UNDER OWN OFFICERS
Take Obligation to Obey Statutes
and Teach Others to Do So.
- 800 on Junior Force.

toughest ponce dlStrlct III tHe IhSt Sioe
of New York is being reformed by the
boys who have heretofore been source
OF trouble to the police is graphically
roid in an exclusive article for the Sur
oev Press Service. written by Miss
Mary Chamberlain.
Neighborhood safety and health are
BEING promoted through the organiza-
zion of the Junior police force" who
are sworn in. have regular police
badges with numbers on them. hold
drills regularly aud are given weekly
conferences with the district captain.
This junior police force is taught the
city ordinances. and through them
these regula tons are being COM
lnunicated to the predominantly for
.ign population. who, through lack Of
education. would not otherwise be in
formed of the laws and ordinances. Not
only are they spreading the law, but
they are watching to see that 1t is
lived up to.
given wide publicity through the Sur
Ney, which is an organization whose
purpose is to investigate and interpret
the facts of living and working cond1-
rionS and promoting efforts for social
uplift- The article follows:
helOTnluS Tic ooyS.
Folks have the idea we're rearing a
bunch of touShs and gun men down
here on the East Side. We got to show
'em they're wrong
This is the reason why Capt. John
j. Sweeney of the fifteenth police pre-
cinct. New York city. has organized
the kid cops in the most congested
tenement district in the world. Capt
Sweeney knows the East Side and the
East Side youngsters. For twenty-nine
years he has watched the mimic war
fare between the boys who shoot
craps. build bonfires on the pavement
play base ball in seething streets
and the policemen who try to stop all
of this.
Capt Sweeney thinks it high time
these old enemies understood each
other. He wants boys to find out po-
licemen weren't created to chase
youngsters, his own patrolmen to learn
that small boys weren't born to poster
the police and people in general TO
know what fine lot of citizens in the
making are growing up In these
recruited the Junior police force, and
Commissioner Arthur Woods has given
sanction to this latest effort In line
with his own plans for preventing, as
well as Furnishing. crime.
Cheese It, the cop may yet slip from
the vocabulary of the East Side.
Just as police district is divided
into precincts, so the fifteenth precinct,
stretching from Rivington street to
: 4th street, from 4th avenue to Avenue
j. has been divided into twelve zones
under supervision of the junior police
Each zone is in charge of a captain
appointed by Capt. commissioner
Sweeney. The captains choose their
own officers, a lieutenant and two SER
Seants, and a squad of twenty-one pa
irolmen is selected from applicants.
on. he force
and as these prove their efficiency the
number will gradually be increased
from the 200 or more names on the
waiting list.
I'VE started to organize last August"
said Capt Sweeney, land now we have
a crowd waiting in front of the station
every afternoon trying to get on the
force
Junior Police Pledge.
Each member is required to pass
physical examination and to learn the
pledge of the junior. police before his
application for membership is con-
sidered These tests passed, he may
became the proud owner of nickel
badge with his number in the force
upon it.
for the four grades of officers, each
modelled after the insignia of the city
police. Capt. Sweeney has donated
the badges himself and fears he may
go broke if the force swells its mem
bership much further.
The pledge, which must be kept in
order TO retain the badge. is. Il prom
lse on my honor to do my duty to God,
10 my country and to obey the law:
to obey the motto and the rules and
regulations of the junior police force
Of the city of New York: to keep and
never misuse my junior police bodge, and
TO surrender it upon demand to the chief
oC the junior police. And the motto
which makes this pledge more than
Il formula Of words requires that
every officer "be honest. be trust
worthy. be loyal. be helpful, be polite.
lie obedient and be brave"
Tips for big Cops"
Daily reports of work done or tips"
TO the senior force are dropped for
Capt. sweeney in report box at the
Boys Club on Avenue A and 10th
street, and superior officers meet with
their chief every Tuesday night. At
these meetings the boys are made ia
regarding cleanliness of streets. fire
out to enforce. as well as the duties
city police. Public school, No. So has
for the squad twice a week. and the