Evening star., 1952-08-10
Most Officials Agree D. c. Police Are Spread Too Thin

When the Police Department
added a new precinct a few
years back group of patrol
men were borrowed from the
first precinct to help staff it.
Result: The first precinct
crime rate went up. And, when
the first precinct men were
sent back to their old beats, the
crime rate in the first precinct
promptly went down again-in
the same proportion it had in
creased.
That's what veteran police of
ficers mean when they call the
man on the beat the first line
of defense against crime. It's
what they tried to explain
without succesS-to a House ap-
preparations subcommittee.
Chairman Neely Of the Sen
ate District Committee. then
looking for graft and corruption
in the beleaguered force, tried
to explain, too.
'The last place to make a re-
duction in personnel in this city
would be the police force at this
time," he told a Senate appro-
priations subcommittee. "Con-
sidering the conditions we have
found existing in this city, I
think it would be tragic to do
SO. Instead of a reduction, the
police force ought to be in
creased and the appropriation
ought to be increased so that
the service also could be in
creased"
The Senate made a bid to re-
store the House cuts but last
month the Police Department
started an auSterity year.
$628.000 short. That equals
more than 200 men.
For several years, the Police
Department had been paying its
patrolmen overtime to work q
sixth day. On the books. it was
206 men below its authorized
strength. Actually, it was put
ting the men on the street via
the overtime route. Congress
had known and approved-but
not the last Congress.
Robbing Peter
The Police Department cur
rently is figuring out methods Of
spreading itself thin. First move
along that line was a robbing-
Peter to > pay-Paul maneuver.
involving the shift of plain
clothesmen from quiet precincts
to busy ones.
The plainclothesman doesn't
prevent crime from happening
in the sense that the uniformed
patrolman'S very presence on
the street Is a crime deterrent.
But the detective. if he's lucky,
can prevent the miscreant from
SHINING again. Then. too. the
taxpayer whose store is robbed
takes a dim view of waiting
around until an overworked de-
tective with too many crimes to
solve gets around to him.
So Police Chief Robert v.
Murray called in his captains.
studied the precinct crime sta
tistics and started juggling pre-
cinct plainclothesmen. In the
second precinct-smallest in
area, largest in crime-he dou-
bled the precinct detective force
by adding six men. He increased
the number Of detectives in the
downtown first precinct from
six to II men and increased the
detective forces in No. 8 and No.
13 from i've to eight men.
Other precincts lost men.
SpecioI Events
In a move to hoard his
Slimmed-d down force and keep
as many men on the street as
possible, he proposed a new
method Of coping with requests
for men for special events.
At present. when men are re-
quested for police duty at Crit
fifth Stadium, Uline's Arena,
the circus or elsewhere that
crowds gather, the men are
drawn from their regular duties,
leaving the street force even
scantier. The District is paid
for the policemen's services at
these events, but that doesn't
put more men on the street.
Chief Murray has proposed to
Commissioner F. Joseph Dono-
hue that the men volunteer for
these assignments on their off,
time and get paid out Of the
funds handed the District by the
SnonSorS of these events. The