Evening star., 1941-07-01
What's wrong with the Metropoli-

"ndG = WRONG WllH t1lt MeIIOpOu-
tan Police Department?
Capt. Harvey Callahan, COM
mander of the 1st precinct, has his
own views and gave some Of them
late yesterday to the House District
Subcommittee investigating the Po-
lice Department.
Capt. Callahan had prepared his
statement in advance Of his ap-
pearance before the subcommittee
and although he had only an op-
portunity to read excerpts of it his
views are to be made part of the
record of the inquiry.
Some of Capt. Callahan's COM
plants. according to his prepared
statement, follow:
"Distrust. suspicion. unfair and
unexplained disciplinary action.
based upon reports of which the
accused has no knowledge and in
which he is seldom given an op-
portunity to explain or defend him.
self. Submission of information
which is inaccurate and misleading
and which results in the formation
Of opinions concerning the subject
III the minds of certain of his su-
perlor officers which he cannot re-
fute and for which he frequently
must pay penalties in the form of
delayed or denied advancement. un-
expected changes of assignment, etc.
Petty Extortion' Fostered.
Inability to devote full time to
regular duties. Loss of prestige and
respect of the public through too
frequent solicitation of money dur
ing fund-raising campaigns for va
rious purposes Development of hab-
its of chiseling, acceptance of gratu-
tiles. discounts, etc, with CORE
spending forfeiture of self-respect
and freedom of action among mem
bers of the force Fostering of
form of petty eXtortion through use
of official uniform in connection
with Embarrassing activities.
Nowhere so much as in law en-
forcement is full mutual conf
dence and cooperation to be de-
sired. The very nature of the job
a continuous and sustained effort
against the enemies OF society,
makes the slightest trace of mutual
dlStruSt among men who should be
working to the same end inimical
to the public interest. When the
effort is directed rather to some
form OF personal aggrandizement
than to the production of the best
possible result there cannot fail to
be friction and jealousy among the
workers. No man trusts another
when he has found from bitter ex-
perience that the man he trusts
would sell him out without COM
Function Tor his own advantage, or
when he has seen man whom he
feels he should be able to trust de-
ceive another man to gain some ad-
vantage for himself This is a sit
uation which can only be eradi-
Gated by taking away inducements to
cheat, to deceive, to betray: and to
indoctrinate all members of the de-
partment with the feeling that 10y
atty to themselves and to their fell
low-Workers is vital to their indi-
vidual success; that there is glory
enough for all; that success in solv-
ing the problems presented to them
by their duties is of paramount i'm
portance: that who gets the praise
or the blame matters not half so
much as that a successful conclu-
sion be reached and that to this
end every personal consideration
must be subordinated.
1T is human nature to follow the
path of least resistance; few men
are likely to do more than is definite
ly required of them. Each
supervising officer in his respective
grade must be held to certain
standards of performance and must
in his turn hold those under his
command to like high standards.
Every supervising officer must neces-
Sarily have a very strict sense of
his own responsibility and he must
not only see that the men under him
are producing, but that their output
is of satisfactory quality. AS COM
manding officer, he should be a
student of men; he must be able to
distinguish between those men who
can produce and will not and those
who are doing the best they can
but are still not able to produce an
acceptable grade of work He must
have the support and assistance of
his superiors in turn in the applica-
ton of approprite remedies to the
individual cases. No organization
can be better than the man at its
head and the efficiency of the organ
ization as a whole can be generally
accepted as an accurate index of it's
commanding officer.
Hits "Loophole" Orders.
Men are entitled to have clear
and understandable instructions be-
fore they begin any task. The COM
manding officer whose orders are
general and vague is usually leaving
himself a loophole through which
he can slip out of his responsibilities
if anything goes wrong, leaving the
subordinate holding the bag. While
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