New Britain herald., 1917-02-15
CHIEF AND POLICE
 tt 4 IN LONG WRANGlE
Supernumeraries and Head of De-
 partment in Open Dispute

! leged grievances from the supernu-
 merary policemen before the safety ] board furnished one of the uveliest 1 sessions for many months. Allega- 1 tions of the supernumeraries' repre- l sentatives were answered straight 1 from the shoulder by Chief of Police l William J. Rawlings, who did not 1 mince matters, but causttcally ar l raigned members of the department | who, he said, had not performed their duty as they should. They were ac-
 cused of misrepresenting facts and,
 in this statement he was supported 1 by Capt. T. w. Grace and House Of 1 ficer A. c. Malone. In turn, Chief | Rawlings was all but given the lie di- l rect on several occasions. The com- missioners had little to do excep. .o l listen and occasionally ask question.
 Upon several occasions, the records of 1 the board failed to agree with the con- 1 tentions of the representatives of the l supernumerarles.
 The supernumeraries were informed l that they had come to the wrong place relative to pay and the like for out l of-town duty, that this is within the province of Chief Rawlings jurisdic- tion, and his alone. They were in 1 forme ed that doing out-of-town duty is | l pay offered is not satisfactory, they do not have to accept
 Relative to establishment of the pay scale. information was given that some of the matters have already been at tended to and that other details will be taken up as soon as possible. The proposed rotary system" for ! detailing of supernumeraries was ex- haustively discussed. Advice was ! given that if the supernumeraries will draft a plan that will be satisfactory to them and present it in writing, It will receive the careful attention of the commissioners and the executive heads of the police department. The rotary systern' is impossible" at
 present according to the statements of Chief Rawlings, Captain Grace and House Officer Malone. Chief Rawlings said he had no objections to any sys- tenn that will maintain the efficiency of the department and assure him sui fcient men to arrange the street beats and meet the demand for hall and the ater assignments.
 No favorites are being made in glv- ing out assignments, he said, except ing in giving work to the men who uncomplainingly take the disagreeable, respond to every call for their services and can be relied upon fl emergen- cy duty. Naturally, he saN ren who are willing to do street dut in all kinds of weather, are willing to ac- cept the disagreeable assignments with any possible "plums'' receive all the work that 1t IS possible to give them and, if there are any times when bet ter-than- ordinary details are possible, men that have been faithful are given preference.
 Dramatically pointing his finger at supernumerary Policeman Ira B. Pier i son, Chief Rawlings said you know full we'll why you have not had nall and theater assignments and why you l won't get them under present condi- l tions, Pierson admitted that he '.knew'' but was satisfied. Later he 1 said that he has not done street duty l for the past fifteen or sixteen months l and was glad of it.
 Accused of Prevarication.
 supernumerary Policeman William ] Souney was accused of deliberately falsifying several times, when called
 upon for extra duty. According to l Chief Rawlings souney had pleaded inability to do duty when sought TOT, on the ground that he had to do extra n foreman was communicated with py
 telephone, Chief Rawlings said, infor- nation was given that there was notn- ing to prevent the supernumerary from doing police duty, as far as re- l uuirements at the factory were con- ] cerned.
 | Captain Grace and House Officer
 Malone told of the difficulties met in
 securing sufficient men to meet the de-
 mands and said that frequently as
 high as fourteen have been asked to
 do duty before two could be secured.
 This has been true, Policeman Malone
 said, until two or three weeks ago
 when the agitation as to 'favoritism"
 and the "rotary system" began ana
 plans were made for a hearing before
 the safety board Since the develop
 ment of the agitation, he said there
 had been less difficulty in getting men.
 The supernumeraries' committee, 1 Ira B. Pierson, chairman, E. 5. her-
 in and William Souney, ha much to
 say but appeared to differ somewhat
 upon number of details relative to
 past action of that body. Supernum-
 erary I<erin said several times that he
 had little to complain of personally
 did not know personally about num- Der of grievances brought up but ap- l peaTeu ldISelN dS eL lepi eoSii'''''0 his colleagues. His differences with
 Chief Rawlings were not as marked as
 those of his two companions.
 Tn opening, Chairman Pierson sad that his committee had nothing new to ask but simply wanted information as to what the board plans to do with the grieva ances presented at a pre- 5 vious meeting. He said that he and his colleagues would answer any ques- tions They did and, in addition, had
 many suggestions to offer Commis-
 sioner Frank J. Moran wanted to
 know if the supernumeraries do not
 understand that a city ordinance re- 5 auires the payment of fifty cents into
 the city treasury, that the safety r board has no power to change this and that it is not taken from the po-