Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-12-07
GEORGE o. PORTER
On Humanizlns the Police Force

On Hunanizlng the Police Force
C1VE the "cop' chance, make life worth
~ living for him and consider and treat
him like human being and there will be
need for less criticism about the inefcienCy
of our police, is the opinion vouchsafed by
George ID. Porter, director of public safety
during the Blankcnburg administration.
eve cannot SAID Mr.. Porter, have the
policeman anything else than what we will
permit him to be. II we want better police
men we must put the business on a higher
plane and give them more help and under
standing and sympathy than We do now. The
average policeman is going to be just what
you and ! make him.
"Mr. Citizen stops the policeman in the
middle of the street and expects him to be
Solomon in all his glory yet regards him
often as the meaneSt Of us. He Is expected
to solve difficult and important problems on
the instant, like the greatest of generals, and
yet the pay which he has been receiving en-
COurages nobody but the rawest of recruits.
So, perforce, his ranks must be made up
of the farmer boy, the blacksmith, the street
car conductor.
Eyes Will BE Opened
''Then, on top of this. he is given little
opportunity or encouragement to further his
education and make something more out Of
himself, to rise in the ranks. He is CON
stantly worried and annoyed by political
leaders of one kind and complexion or
another. He is subject to all sorts of rules
changed so that often he does not know what
he Is to do. He is. on the whole, relegatcd
to an unworthy place in the community,
when little human understanding and fol-
lOwship and decent treatment would make
him finer citizen and an ADLER officer of
the law.
''1f you would know something about the
Importance and difficulties of the police
mans job, do like did and investigate him
personally for yourself. Go out with him
on his beat, see him at work on special
cases and some of the other manifold de-
tails of his work and then see what you think
of him. Your eyes will be opened.
'Yet this raw recruit is expected at once
to be a champion athlete General Foch. n
Solomon, hair trigger thinker, a man of
infallible Judgment. man proof against
every possible temptation and in general
veritable Admirable Crichton.'
"Is it quite fair to treat this man as
some one not quite so good as the rest of
us and subject him to conditions that would
make a BolsheviSt Of him and expect him
to be perfect in one Of the most i'm
portant and difhCuIt and trying jobs in the
community! found in my experience as
head of the police force. that 80 per cent of
them, despite the low level on which their
calling was placed, were positively all right
at heart.
Common Sense Needed
"One of the most important qualifications
needed for the job Of policeman is lust
good, common sense. Yet | believe our evil
service institutions don't fully appreciate
this. There should be more breadth and
elasticity to their examinations Tbnre
should be no catch questions. How can Won
expect the raw men that are attracted now
to this calling to be able successfully to
answer them? He is further hamprred in
this respect by his anxiety to make good so
that whereas his common sense would tell
him to give one answer, and incidentally tLr
correct one he gives an answer that would
not work out in everyday practice. '''
Thus. the question might read: Sunnoso
you heard that seven gunmen were at work
| what would you doy Anxious to imnress
| with his bravery and fighting Qualities RI"
answer for the most part, was about lilo
| this Why. ! would pull out my gun and
| go and get them: "
Now, anybody with common sense knows
| that he would do nothing of the kind IJo
| would be afraid in the first place and n fool
! in the next. The correct answer would he
| Il would ring up my station house and nsl,
| for help, then proceed after my men. ~"
| "Or he might be asked SUPPOSE n man
| rushes up to you and says: MY little how
| has been lost or stolen, what would yor do$,
| Impressed by the importance of the occasion
| the majority of the answers would he. y
| would make an investigation and find out
whether the man is of good r pute and ia
telling the truth before proceeding to action ;
| IL he was answering according to the dic-
tates OF common sense he would say IT
would notify my police station first and then
were right valuable time might not be lost
I'VE should have a school for this mr.
l pose' where, during certain hours, the no.