Evening star., 1951-11-10
The Commissioners Stand Too Pat


The legitimate purpose of the investiea-
ton OF the Police Department is to identify and
get rid of any crooked policemen. That most
certainty should be done, and all of the parties
to the present dspute-if their statements can
be taken at face value-agree that it should
be done. AS matters stand. however, there is
increasing danger that the real purpose of the
investigation will be sidetracked
1t seems to The Star that the District Com
missioners are by no means blameless In this
situation That their intentions are good is
not open to question. But the quality of the
Judgment that they have displayed is open to
serious question
Their original decision to order the police
men to answer the QUESTIONABLE at the request
OF Senator Nicely was of dubious wisdom For
the QUESTIONABLE contained questions that very
lew people, including policemen, could reason
ably be expected to answer under oath, with
Cne prospect OF perjury prosecutions which that
raises. One question, for instance, asks how
much was spent for fuel in 1945. That was a
war year when people were buying fuel wherever
they could get it. How many people could an
swer it correctly under oath? As Judge Kirk
land observed from the bench during Thursdays
nearing, such question is utterly ridiculous"
At the time of the original decision, how
ever, the Commissioners, although they had the
benefit of legal advice, may have resolved doubts
as to the questionnaire in favor of a laudable
desire to cooperate with Senator Neely, who
heads the investigating committee. But that
can hardly apply to yesterdays two-to-one deci-
sion to stand pat on the QUESTIONABLE.
BY that time the Commissioners had the
benefit of court opinion. 1t was opinion
which left some questions clothed with doubt,
and fho alotivy nf
portance. But with respect to other questions
Judge Kirkland was specific enough.
The basic decision was that the court was
without Jurisdiction since none of the complain
ing policemen had as yet suffered an injury
which warranted an appeal to the courts. Such
an appeal Judge Kirkland said, cannot be con-
sidered until after an injury dismissal, for ex-
ample) has been suffered, and until after admin
istrative remedies within the Police Department
have been exhausted.
But the court went beyond this narrow rul-
ing to make observations which seem to have
carried no weight with Commissioners Donohue
and Robinson, but which persuaded Commissioner
Young to dissent.
Judge Kirkland said that from casual"
examination, many of the 1,750 questions "ap-
pear irrelevant and immaterial to the inquiry"
He also said that the Commissioners order to
to be an ultra wires act" which means that
under the circumstances, they had no legal
authority to issue the order.
In the face of the doubt which this throws
on the legality of their act, the Commissioners
might have paused to- stop, look and listen They
might have taken another look at the question
naire with a view to eliminating Objectionable
and silly questions, while retaining proper ques-
tions that would be necessary in elciting the
desired information. Then, If the Senate COM
mittees counsel refused to accept any modifca-
tions, they could have made the questionnaire
their own and could have demanded, which they
would have had right to do, that the police
answer it,
1t is possible, of course, that some police
men would have refused to answer even such
questionable as that. But If that had hap
pened-if the effort had been made-the Com
missioners would have been on much stronger
ground than is now the case. Instead. they
have elected to stand pat on a QUESTIONABLE
which, according to their own counsel, contains
questions concerning which there may be
serious doubt.
The evil in this is not merely that the Com
mssioners have ignored the warning signals
from the court. The greater evil is that such
an attitude, if persisted in, may lead unneces-
sarily to court fight so protracted that the
, investigation itself will be thwarted.
This is not to say that the Commissioners
should back down on proper and essential ques-
tions merely because they are threatened with
litigation. That, too, would defeat the real
purpose of the investigation. But the Comnis
sioners should make every effort to draft a rea-
sonable QUESTIONABLE which they can legally
require the police to answer If they will do
this they will have the full support of the COM
munity, and there will be less danger that the
investigation, of which the questionnaires them
selves are small part and of doubtful value at
best, will fail of it's real purpose.