Evening star., 1925-06-24
BLANTON HELD AS SOWING SEED
OF DISLOYALTY AMONG POLICE
Col. Sheriff. WriteS Letter to Texas Representative
Criticising Him for Remarks He4 Recently
Made to Members of Park Ftrce.

| reasonably and fearh assly without ref
| erence to the official. social or other
| position held by the offender. No spe-
| cial disposition is allowed for Army.
| Navy or Marine Corps officers or for
| those holding special types of tags,
such as diplomatic or 'conGres-
| sional.' The policy of this office is
to enforce the law with the greatest
| possible courtesy. but with absolute
strictness and with absolute impartial
ity in all cases.
I'm proof of this assertion and in
accordance with your request the fol
lowing names of officers of the Army,
Navy and Marine Corps have been
arrested and either forfeited collateral
or have been fined Lieut.. Frederic
a. Henney. Capt. Carroll p Price, Col.
Henry G. Whitehead and Capt. Louis
NJ. Bourne
None of the above officers made
an appeal to me, and in cases where
appeals have been made to me by
Army. Navy or Marine Corps office rs
or by others l have consistently ne
fused to intervene, except in case,'
where it has been proven that park
police officers have treated the offend
ers with discourtesy.
Officers May Use Discretion.
=. In reference 10 Your remark
McMorriS with respect to park police
using discretion in making arrests for
traffic violation. % miles per hour may
be permitted under certain circum
stances, 80 miles per hour may be per
mltted under other circumstances and
even 30 miles per hour may be per
mltted under some circumstances.
The traffic regulations for the parks
require n speed of not exceeding %
miles on clear roadwayS. The park
police. however, are allowed to use
their discretion up to % miles an hour
with the thought that for mild in
fraction of this regulation. as for in
stance, one or two miles in excess of
the allowed speed there would be a
controversy in the court such as to
make 1t doubtful If conviction could
be secured, but for a motorist going
at % miles an hour il is quite certain
that there could be no mistake, and
hence conviction could be secured
Moreover, the park police are not re-
quired to make arrests for mild
breaches of traffic or other regula-
tions, but are authorized to use dis
erection in certain cases such as If
it is the first Offense or otherwise un-
intentional and warn the offender
rather than to make an arrest. The
results secured by the policy of this
the law rather than TO see how many
offenders can be taken into court can
be proven by the limited amount OF
violations of the law which occur in
the parks as will. l am sure, be at
tested by the public at large who
make use OF the parks
This office is constantly in receipt
of letters of cOmmendation for various
members of the park police force for
q l4J n lir,tv Of
ations. and these letters of recon
mendation in some cases even go to
the extent Of commanding officers who
have found IT necessary to make ar
rests and secure convictions.
Says Statement Is Unfounded.
- There is no ground whatever for
the statement in paragraph 8 of Your
letter. On the contrary, the self-re-
spect of the park police is maintained
by being required and allowed to do
their duty in the open with a View
to preventing the commission of
crime rather than to sneak up on
minor offenders or laying in wait until
they have committed crime then
making the arrest and getting credit
therefor.
IF there is any other information
that you wish, L will be very glad
to give ii TO YOU personally or in
writing, but l wish to take this op-
portunity to call your attention to the
improperly of the method followed
by you in addressing directly the
members Of the park police force to
secure the information from them
rather than coming to this office to
secure it, which would have been very
freely given you here.
The remarks made by you to the
| park police can. in my opinion. nave
| no other effect than to stir up discOn-
| tent and disloyality to their superiors
! with resulting decentralization of the
force and Inefficient service TO the
| public.
Again ! wish to say that any in
| formation that YOU may desire in CON
| nectlOn with the park police force
| l viii be glad to give to you and to
! any other person. freely and willingly
Il inclose herewith as requested
| by you copy of the orders of March
= and May 16 and the questionnaire. >"