The Washington herald., 1916-07-21
An Efficient Police Department.


ton to the merits Of the Capitals police depart
ment and joined the ranks of those who long
have been urging upon Congress the need for
an adequate system of pensions for menibers
of the department and their dependents.
There are none, perhaps in Washington who
will deny that the lack of adequate pensions for
policemen and fremen long has been one OF
the shames of the government of the District, but
among the residents of the city as we'll as among
the members of Congress may be found many
different opinions as to the efficiency OF the
police department.
Statistics will show that the National Capital
has of the most efficient police departments
in the country. But a study of statistics also
will show that because of peculiar conditions in
this city we should have the most efficient police
department of any city in the country.
Washington's population is formed of diplo-
mats, members Of Congress, the idle rich, about
10000 government employees and their families
and those in business here. About the only at
tention given these people by the police is when
they violate a traffic regulation fail to sweep
off the snow.
In slums and immigrant residents Washington
is poor. The city almost is without slums or
immigrants, and in New York and Chicago the
police say crime is bred in slums and among
immigrants of low class. Washington has a
large colored population that is remarkably law
abiding.
Viewed as an American city, Washington is
practically free from crime, but yet few crimes
are committed here. To estimate the efficiency
of the police department, therefore, it is neces-
sary to ascertain how the police handle the
crimes that are committed A review of some
of the violations of law of recent date is inter
esting in estimating police efficiency.
These law violators in some instances are out
of-town criminals, who have visited Washington
committed crimes and vanished. Such the
case in the recent robbery of downtown store
where a thief or thieves walked away with
$4,000 worth of lace and other valuables. No
arrest has been made in this case
No arrest has been made for the murder OF
white man in Brookland, D. c.; the murder oi
a colored man in the southwest and the murder oi
colored in the northwest, all of recent
date. The police have not found the men who
entered the Chaconas store in Louisiana avenue
dynamtod the safe and escaped with rich hau
in cash and jewelry.
band of thieves or number OF men work
ing individually have been robbing apartments
a period OF many months, but arrests
have been made. The police have not caught The
negro who tried to rob the home OF Police Scrgt
Edwards, of the Fifth precinct, and attacked his
little daughter. Fortunately the child was not
badly hurt.
At Christmas pickpockets worked boldly
and in such numbers that police Official de-
cared THE dips are tearing the town wide open
and getting away with it" The pickpockets who
worked so daringy among the throngs at Airing
ten on Memorial Day still nave not the
inside Of a Washington police cell. The film
famers who robbed a number of visitors to the
Capital of large sums by matching coins and
other tricks, have not been caught.
And the records of the police department will
show many crimes whose perpetrators still
are free to ply their trades. These facts do not
prove that the rank and file of the police depart
ment composed of inefficient men, but they
facts that cannot be ignored when an csti-
mate Of the department as a whole is being made