Evening star., 1936-07-28
Police Scout Car Job
is An Important One
To the Editor Of The Star:

Often when q police car approaches,
1t Is not uncommon to hear this re-
mark: What soft job those cops
have riding around in 0 nice new car
and making their rounds by auto In.
stead of by foot" Since 1t seems to be
the consensus of opinion that the scout
car patrelman's Job is an easy one it
appears only fair that the policeman
should have a chance to present his
side of the picture.
Is the task actually easy? And is 1t
such sinecure as 1t seems?
police force member offers some
interesting and enlightening informa-
ton.
"Of course" says he, "patrolling the
beat by car is easier than doing 1t by
foot. But for every advantage now
there are 10 disadvantages In the old
days your feet got sore; but you never
had the endless, nerye-racking and
energy depicting jobs you have now.
Before, your duties were few; scarcely
four calls a week went to the police
man on the beat; now-with scout
car-efficers are called upon to engage
in every task from running down the
most hardened criminal to acting as
nursemaid for children who never in
their life have known the bounds OF
parental restraint.
Too many of the calls made are
trivial and unnecessary. Worst In this
class Is the request that police come
and break up crowd of boys that have
congregated or are playing in the street.
n lie hlrt
does little good Usually when we get
there the boys have disappeared; some
intultlve sense seems to tell them we
are coming and the result is 4 great
loss OF valuable time; our mission has
been but wild goose chase. The lam
entahle thing about this situation is
that frequently. when on such trivial
errand, call will come in that is really
urgent. Then a car from another dis
triet must be dispatched. This entails
more loss OF time, and this is not to be
minimizsd. for many is the occasion
when the saving of few minutes meant
the saving OF life. l am sure If the
average citizen were aware of this sit
uatiop he would be just a wee bit more
hesitant when making calls of this na-
ture.
Another large number Of needless
calls are made by women who engage
in marital squabbles. They get excited,
hurry to the phone and ask us to rush
on over. When we arrive both husband
and wife run out to tell their side OF
the story and the officer has the added
job of acting as both judge and arbiter.
In such cases nothing usually happens:
the husband is let Of with a warning
and that ends the affair. When an
erring mate is locked up nothing usually
happens then, either, for, as rule,
when the case comes up the wife's anger
has cooled and she is no longer willing
to prefer charges.
Those are but few of the things
police have to contend with There are
others. To begin with, when the men
go on duty they must cruise contin-
uously, which is enough to wear down
the mind and muscle of the best of
them. Then they must, while so doing,
also keep an eye peeled for possible law
violations that come across their path.
They must look for traffic signs that
are down or in need of painting or repair.
For every call sent to them over the
police radio a record must be made;
notations must be made of the time it
was answered and what was done there.
1t is not unusual for such a report to
involve four pages of writing, and often
the officer will have to spend several
hours of his own time completing the
record. especially II the night or shift
has been a busy one.
as that all. you say? No, indeed. not
How about when an arrest is made?
Then the policeman has the added Joy
of going to court and preferring his
charges-also on his own time. If the
case is lengthy or delayed and the on
Ger has to 60 on duty with little or no
sleep the next day, why-that doesn't
matter-it's all part of the soft job
he has riding around In the nice new
car" which he enjoys.
'Yes, the policeman in q scout car
certainly has q snap of it. But I'd hate
to have any superior offer me q job
pounding the sidewalks again. I'd take
1t tomorrow" JOSEPH AMBROSE.