The Washington times., 1935-05-01
MARY T. NORTON

broader intellectual background
than may be gained by mere
experience alone. 1t is inter-
eSting in this connection to note
that the requirement for en-
trance into the women'S bureau
is higher than that for en-
trance into the department gen.
orally. The day when physical
ability, coupled with a limited
amount of schooling, was suf-
ficient for efficient police func-
tioning certainly passed and be-
came extinct with the advent of
modern organized criminals and
crime.
Efficiency Ratings.-From the
testimony given before the sub
committee, it was demonstrated
beyond question that the pres
ent method of efficiency ratings
is not only inaccurate but is,
in fact, highly conducive to dis
satisfaction.
1t has been the practice for
each precinct or other COM
mander to prepare efficiency
ratings for those under his or
her command. Fundamentally
this, as the first step, is sound.
Personnel should be rated by
the direct superior. However, in
the preparation of these ratings,
the captains should seek the
advice of the lieutenants and
SergeantS. This is done in
some isolated instances now.
The captains ratings should be
transmitted to the inspector for
the district, and then it should
become the duty of the inspector
and the captain to confer and
attempt to reconcile any diver
gent views which they might
entertain. The ratings should
then be submitted to a central
rating board, whose primary
objective should be to equalize
the variations in ratings, which
are necessarily present because
of the human element which is
reflected in the fact that one
rating officer may generously
rate high, whereas another may
more conscientiously rate low.
The subcommittee was sur
prised to learn that the eff
cheney ratings now prepared by
the captains are received at
headquarters, filed away, and
not even consulted by the men,
bers of the central rating board.
1t is not only nonsensical to re-
quire the captains to make rat
ings which are not even conSid-
cred, but it is, to say the least,
a mild form of false and mis-
leading activity. 1t can only
produce resentment on the part
of the captains, and cause the
personnel, in general, to feel, in
many instances correctly, that
they are being rated by officers
who do not even know them
and who have no direct con-
tact with their work.
The subcommittee strongly
urges the elimination of the
present method and the install
lation of one in harmony with
the suggestions contained in the
second paragraph above.
Traffic Bureau-T h ere IS
quite apparently a wide diver
gence in the views of high-rank-
ing officials of the police de-
partment as to whether or not
the central traffic bureau
should be decentralized or
maintained on its present basis.
Every precinct commander who
testified before the Subcommit-
tee stressed the need of mounted
traffic officers being attached
to the various precincts and di-
rectly under the control and SUI
perVision of the precinct cap
tains. Many of them definitely
recommended the decentraliza-
ton of the traffic bureau. On
the other hand, Inspector Lamb.
the ranking police official Of
the traffic bureau. and others.
insist that it would be a grave
error to decentralize the bu-
reau.
In the appendix there will be
found a communication on this
subject from the District of Co.
lumbia division of the Ameri-
can Automobile Association sup
porting the Capitalization Of
traffic activities.