The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-10-20
ENRIGHT PRAISES
MEN, RAPS CRITICS
Points in 1918 Report to Va
rious Economies He Has
Brought About.
WERE FEWER ARRESTS
Investigators Attacking AID
ministration Are PARASITES
and Charlatans."

Richard e. Enright, Police Commits
sioner, in his report Of the Police De-
partment for 1918, a handsomely bound
volume of 2s3 pages, issued yesterday,
pours into the ears of Mayor Hylan high
words of praise for the work of the De-
putty Commissioners and the uniformed
members of the force. He also calls at
tention to certain economies. chiet
among which Is a saving Of more than
1900, 900 caused by the abolition of the
special patrolmen. These officers, Com
missioner Enright said. performed no
adequate service and were largely en-
ployed guarding the property of privats
corporations, a work described as a
wholly improper drain on the city
treasury"
With this saving the Commissioner
listed the elimination Of nine branch de-
tective bureaus, involving yearly rental
for offices of $500. He called atten-
ton to the purchase Of overcoats for the
old Home Defence League made by the
previous police administration, which
cost the city about $4,000, adding that
the coats were subsequently found or
such inferior quality that they were
turned over to the Department OF Chari-
ties.
The Commissioner made another cut
in the staff of clerical employees,
abolishing sixty-six offices. In Janu-
airy 1918 there were lis civilian clerks
drawing salaries for the year of $780,
220. On December 81, 1913. there were
eighty-five civilian clerks, with total sal
aries of S108.04n.
Dealing with law and order the Com
missioner said that only 17O,15s arrests
were made and summonses served in
1913, as compared with 1898 in 1917.
The reduction was due, he explained. to
instructions issued to the force directing
that arrests shall not be made when a
summons will suffice, and no summons
shall be issued when a warning will
suffice.
Commissioner Enright finds that social
evils have been reduced to low ebb.
Poker clubs and gambling are checked
wherever possible, he said, but the police
are hampered by a legal decision which
prevents arrests in many of these cases
The Commissioner regarded this situa-
ton as n phenomenon"
The Commissioner spoke sarcastically
OF the critics of the police administra.
ton, spending his greatest invective on
the civic organization which from time
to time have sought to differ with him
He referred to the Investigators Of these
organizations as parasites" and "charla-
tans," and said that one OF the societies
actually consists of but one or two in
dividuals representing no body Of citi-
zens. All these investigators had as as
sets. he said, were AN obscure office, 8
dilapidated typewriter and an imposing
letterhead." He referred to newspapers
attacking the efficiency of the police as
having "the most unblushing disregard
for truth" and spoke equally unkindly
of women 'faddists' who have been in
terested in police reform.
/ The report showed that 1926 police
posts cover 3.514.2 miles of streets in the
greater city, and that the uniformed
force Of 1862 patrols an area of about
514.fo square miles. The strength OF the
force is one patrolman for every $50 in
habitants, proportion which ranks un
favorably with London. where there 1:
one officer for every 900 persons.
Commissioner Enright saved 1898,
o0514 as unexpended funds from tn,
1918 budget OF S20.035,593.s5, while ir
1917 only S5s,069.e2 was left over out O.
a budget of S19,66S,5S5.76. During tn,
war emergency the police force was shor
1000 men, he said. He made a recon-
mendation in favor of establishing a Pc
lice Department hospital. stating that
per cent. of the force was constantly or
the sick list.