Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-05-12
NO NEED FOR MORE POLICEMEN

Chief Tonnesens plan for shifting the patrolmen from one
beat to another will enable every man to become thoroughly ac-
quainted with the city and will give them valuable experience if
they should ever be called upon to serve in any particular section
in an emergency. Besides, when the same man covered the same
beat for a great length Of time he is bound to make acquaintance
and form friendships that, no matter how honest he may be or how
good his intentions, he is inclined to become lenient and lax in
seeing that the law is enforced.
When the chief, however, intimates that he needs more men
to cover the city he will have to give conclusive proof of such,
need before he can convince the taxpayers. Maintaining the.
police force is already the heaviest burden that the city has to
carry and the expense is increasing every year. Perth Amboy, for
its size, now has more traffic officers than other cities and its
police department will compare favorably with any similar mu-
nieipahty. The city has not grown to such an extent that an in
crease in the number of men is necessary on that account. As
far as the traffic is concerned, the number of officers assigned
to this duty might be reduced rather than be increased, except on
~week-ends, and thus the force on patrol at night might be added
10 without increasing the danger as far as traffic is concerned.
In regard to increasing the size of the police force, the lastI
issue of the Red Bank Register contained some interesting Clown
Talk y as John H. Cook calls his editorial column, concerning the
experiment being tried at Eatontown, in Monmouth county. It'll
seems that Eatontown used 10 have one policeman for whom $1,000
was appropriated annually. Last year, in a spirit Of economy, the
township decided to do without police protection altogether and
save the $1,000.
According to the Red Bank Register. during the five months
that Eatontown has been without police protection not a house
has been broken INTO not even a hehroost peen foDDeu' a le"
drunken men have caused minor troubles, but in each instance
these outbreaks have been promptly squelshed. Eatontown prob
ably has had less crime, - the Register says, ethan any other
place of considerable size in the country, far less, in proportion
10 population, than Red Bank and other places which are heavily
policed, not only with ordinary bluecoats, but with sergeants and
detective sergeants, to say nothing of being provided with police
clerks and a police telephone system
While it is admitted that a country village like Eatontown
can get along better without police protection than can a CO.'S
mopoHtan city like Perth Amboy, yet is there not a tendency
everywhere to override this police protection idea? The trend is
constantly toward more and more men thereby piing up expense
that is passed on to the taxpayers.
There is every reason to believe that Perth Amboy has all the
policemen it needs for the present. If those already wearing the
uniform were given a free hand and told to enforce the law with
out fear or favor Perth Amboy would come pretty nearly being
the model city from a police point of view without any additional
on the police force. g