Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-10-09
THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
RECOMMENDATIONS.

THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
REPRESENTATIONS.
With the recommendations made by the
Omaha Chamber of Commerce through its ex-
ecutive committee, looking toward thorough re-
organization of the police department, The Bee
is in hearty accord, with some minor qualifca-
tons.
The Chamber of Commerce lays down =
program of legislation to be enacted at the next
session, to strengthen the police arm of the city
government, including power to spend more
money to disregard seniority in promotions
and remove "for the good of the service" to
increase the size and pay Of the force, to per-
NIT the choice OF trained chief "from any part
of the country where he may be found"
For the city is proposed a program within
present municipal powers, embracing appoint
ment of trained police drill master, COM
petent and experienced chief, equipment with
standard arms, unhampered power and respon-
siblity for the police department head, and con-
struction of modern city Jail and police head
quarters building.
Finally, the public is called upon to develop
greater respect for law and better support Of
its law officers in proper discharge of their
duties.
All this is obviously predicated upon the
proved need of new headship to replace inefht
cheney, for if the present police administration
were satisfactory, there would be no need to
open the way to secure an experienced chief
from outside. 1t is the irony of fate that those
demanding more funds and larger police force
now are the very ones heretofore responsible
for holding down the limits of police expendi-
ture, while coddling the fire department so that
we have always had more men and money to
protect property than to protect life.
While merit alone should govern police ap-
pontments and promotions, the power to re-
move without cause must have its limitations.
A police officer, like fireman or \ school
teacher, who earns permanent-list place must
have some protection against dismissal on
mere whim or to make way for some favorite
under pretense of being "for the good of the
service" especially when he has acquired vested
rights in pensions, relief funds and sick bene-
fits, after spending the best years of his life
in serving the public faithfully. For dismissals
without cause if justified at all, certainly unani-
nous action of the whole commission should at
least be required.
So far as going out of town to get an ex-
perienced police chief is concerned, we see no
objection to it, assuming the authority would
be used only as a last resort. We go outside
now when necessary for trained educator to
superintend our schools, and we should do the
same for the police and fire departments 1t
should be recalled in passing, however that the
prohibition which the Chamber of Commerce
wants removed was put into the law over
protest of The Bee after the incumbency Of
Chief of Police Martin White, the best chief
we ever had, who was brought here from Chi
cago, by the same influences that find it now
bar to action.
What the Chamber of Commerce report
means in deploring "any studied attempt to dis
credit a public administration by exploiting
false charges" is not clear. Any exploitation of
private life, should be deplored, whether
Studied" or not. The same is true of false
charges exploited by one part of public ad-
ministration against another, as for example the
charges instigated by the police department
against municipal Judge before the governor,
pronounced after investigation to be wholly I'm
founded and unwarranted. True charges of in
competency or inef6ciency, however, are not
to be deplored because they are the only safe
guard the people have against abuse of official
power.
On the whole, the Chamber of Commerce
recommendations are the best and most sensi-
bic that have been offered in the present crisis,
and we hope their sponsors will not stop until
they are put through and made effective by in
telligent application.