New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-25
The New York
Police
Continued from Page One

cruiser.
Woods's plans are not complete. Be.
fore long the authority of the New York
policeman viii extend 100 miles to Asho-
kan Dam, in the Catskills, whence comes
our water supply. On Wednesday last
the legislature passed bill placing the
protection of the aqueduct in Woods,
hands. Another bill still in committee
authorizes an increase in the force 70
meet this contingency. In anticipation
of its passage, the Commissioner ALREADY
has the 1 .292 waiting list candidates for
patrolmen attending the recruits school,.
Such are the forces and such are the
weapons which the Police Commission
er has provided for New York's recep-
ton to the unexpected and the unpleas.
ant. Now for a demonstration Of how
the plan works. An important fixture
in the office of Chief Inspector Max
Schmittberger at Headquarters is the
Calamity cabinet" Let us assume
that the Municipal Building has been
wrecked by dynamite The nearest 20
liceman on post to survive the shock
turns in an alarm to his precinct, which
five seconds later would have the word
in the office of the chief inspector A
second after that Schmittberger would
be consulting cards in the calamity
cabinet" drawer entitled mis- to Num-
He would remove a card indexed "Mu-
nicipal Building" and, strangely
enough, if you examine it closely you
you would see on it also the words
Wrecked by explosion" A moments
study reveals that the card is regu!a-
ton police order, announcing the demo-
lition of the Municipal Building In pre-.
else official form it tells commanders
what they and their men are to do.
While you have been noting this the
chief inspector has filled in the time
and the date and handed the card to his
telegrapher, who has flashed it to the
captains of all adjacent precincts. The
order carries detailed instructions.
Every moment is saved for execution
One detachment of bluecOats throws
Gordon about the building and holds
back the crowd; another plungs
among the debris rescuing suru
vors. Ambulances clang up, police
surgeons begin giving first aid
and the automobiles bear the IN
iured away to hospitals, which have
wards ready to receive them. Another
force is laying out and identifying the
dead. Captain Thomas Tunney'S bomb
squad is poking among the wreckage'
working on cause and clews. Other De-
tective Bureau men are out rounding
I'D the first batch of suspects.
Name the greatest local disasters you
can think of-collapSe Of Brooklyn
Bridge, cave-in of Hudson tubes, crowd
ed elevated train leaves track ana
plunges to street below, ferryooal
rammed and sunk, subway blown up @
rush hour None of these things mas
happened in actually and most OF them
never will-but all of them and tnou'
sand others have happened in thel
and in the Imagination Of the men WIZ
direct the Police Department. Dlsaslel
cannot outguess the calamity CABINET
And then there is the talking oox' 'he
little contrivance on the Commission
er's desk which looks like a toy Vic'roiS'
1t is a speaking telephone and a Trans,
mitter of great secrets. BY a series :,
electric buttons it can be connecIe'
with the private telephone of any OF 'n'
Headquarters executives or the lhspeV
ton district commanders in any secuOn
of New York. The ComnllsS0n''
speaks an order in the direction OF uN
box. and the order is relayed to prOi''
authority. 80.
The department has code OF 'es
phone signals. Woods can turn "
talking box and say:
1.-TWO hundred and eighty to all p'
cincts
Interpreted this might mean;
"Notifv all members of unifOrmeu