Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-02-28
POLICE COMMISSION
ADVISES COUNCIL
ON ND|SC|PL|NE PLAN
Records for Past Is Months Show
2l Men Fined 98 Days; Were
Ill 300 Days.
PAID WHILE ON SICK LEAVE

Tventv-one members of the police
force, who were fined 9S days pay during
The period between January /, 1917,
and March /. 1918, aggregating Is
months. were off ON sick leave 300 days
during that time. They were paid for
he 2o0 DAYS. which they did not work,
because of illness. but their pay wos
deducted, as penalty, on the 9S days
hat they did work, covering the period
ol their fines.
This information was given members of
cit, Council, by the Board of Police
Commissioners at a conference, which
was held last night, at police headquarters
when the matter of police discipline was
discussed
The Police Board believes that the
method Il follows Is the best to maintain
discipline IN the department. and offered
statistics of which the above Is a sum
mary. m support Of its contention and TO
show that Il Is not as hard a master as
some persons have been led TO believe.
Various changes of method have been
-uggcsted but none has met with the
approval of the comm ssiOn. which does
not believe that any plan suggested Is
better than the one IN vogue here. one
plan that has been advocated is that IN
effect Ia Portland. Ore. where penalties
for MINOR osfcnScs are imposed through
ici,Ictinns from vacation periods. .hn-
other i, the merit and dement, system.
y o. irducting DAYS from vacations the
board feels that every man should have
his ful week : vacation while many of the
men have asked the commissioners not
Ia 10 ANYTHING THAT will interfere with the
vacation csprcIaIlv m view Of the fact
that each man gets only a week of for
tins purpose The merit system, It IS
icld bN the commission. would not be
etirctve under present conditions here.
r,ln ron NS~l DAYS OF DLENEsS
That the Pahcr Commission is lenicnt
with the men is evident from record
Vhich was read ~ the conference. Of which
thc above Is summary II showed that
iht board ls stern only IN extreme cases;
alSn that L the automatic system IN
Nopae IN some CitIcS which have been
.ited - moiels. had hccn followed. a
numher az the men still on the force
would have automatically discharged
Themselves
While the cz4ses 81 2i officers arc given
10 the reVort being the whole number
l.eiorr the board ali hut four were of
on slck leave and most OF them many
more days than they were fined for derc-
hctlons Therefore while u were re-
iuirrd 10 work aS dsvs without pay. aS 4
lcnaltv. I. of this number were paid for
40 days thcv dld not work hclng on
SICK leave The bulk of the sick leave
vent 10 ten Of the mcn who had 3 total
" so davs while the other seven were
Iaid for 3 days on which they did not
work
I.enicncv 10 this extent Is not customary
in the business world
or the u men before the hoard only
no were discharged and ono OF these was
,cforc the hoard three times within the
period specified OnC man who was fined
l0ur dsyS paN for hclnG late Ia making
two reports on the same night los 2n
dave through illness another, who got
ten dsvs for sleeping While Oh duty. was
II SICK - dave, one who was hncd one
laN pay Tor heing 43 minutes late IN
making 8 report. was SICK - davs another
a hu goi ten dsys for falling 10 make
report Was Of as DAYS on sick leave
another " no got two DAYS for being -
minutes late IA making report was of
~ daVs. another. who was fined three
davs for sleeping while on duty, was off l /
,lavs. whiie another. who got the same
penafv for similar offence, was sick
= DAYS Another, who failed to make
report and was fined FIVE days pav, was
Of as dsvs another. fined two davs pay
Tor beng absent from home when i'll. was
SICK II davs another who was fined one
day for sleeplpg while on duty, was i'll -
tlavS
ALMOST AN EyEN SCORE
The record showed that some of the
men who had been fined had almost an
even score in the matter Of days they
worked without pay, rs compared with
Continued on pase q