New-York tribune., 1917-07-15

trated almost daily by the arrest OF
known thieves below the dead line at
Fulton Street, and in the work of the
pickpocket, river front and safe and
loft squads.
When there was but little work to be
done the detectives rambled about town
locating criminals and familiarizlng
themselves with the living conditions
and habits of their prey. On such a
trip one night in an Italian section OF
the city Lieutenant Petrosini, who
later was murdered in Italy, overheard
, a conversation of two men that resulted
in the arrest of a band of Sicilian
blackmailers, the saving of thousands
of dollaps in property and, in the opin-
ion of the police, undoubtedly prevented
several murders that were being
planned.
Commissioner Woods, familiar with
the conditions described, planned to re-
vive the system, eliminate its evils and
! in other ways improve upon it. How
successful he has been in carrying out
part of the plan is demonstrated by
the recent results of the anarchist and
bomb squad, the safe and loft squads,
the unidentified dead bureau and the
narcotic squad. The members of these
bureaus are specialists in the crimes TO
which they are assigned for investiga-
| tion.
The homicide bureau has been the
only squad which has not shown up
we'll. Its particular work is the follow
/ ing up of murder cases after the branch
bureaus have been unsuccessful. It's
glaring failures have been the ripper
murders of two East Side children and
the murder Of Patrolman McAuliffe
while on duty at Sixty-seventh Street
and First Avenue. The failure TO capt
ure Mike Rofrsno, who surrendered TO
| the District Attorney, also counted
against the squad. There are other less
important murder mysteries that have
not been solved.
But the police point out that Woods
did not go far enough He broke up
/ the big squad at headquarters and scat
tered them among the nine branches of
/ the bureau. In this way many of the
men were assigned to work with which
they had no more expert knowledge
| than the average patrolman. There is
no longer that intimacy between the
men and their commander, all confer
ences and reports being made through
| the head of branch bureaus. This off
cial carries back TO the men orders and
reports of conditions downtown"
The police also emphasize that the
"line-up" of to-day is Intellectual
through the necessity OF having the
courts pass on the guilt or innocence of
| the prisoner before he can be brought
| downtown.
Commissioner Woods has opposed
/ the stool pigeon" idea and discouraged
it from the beginning. Mr.. Rubin also
| opposed the system until after being in
charge about sixty days. He realized
then that the police informant was n
necessary part Of the bureau. Without
them. the detectives, ordinarily without
the Imagination to do deduction, were
I lost.
Mr.. Woods felt that the stool
pigeon" system had tendency to make
the detectives overlook crimes com
mitted by that particular man in ex-
| change for the information he gave the
police. He has always advocated pay
ing for information turned over to the
department.
One ex-detective SERGEANT, now a
ranking officer in the uniformed force,
answered Mr.. Woods contention:
| "A stool pigeon was accepted in my