Evening star., 1955-03-18
Reossuronce From Police Chief

There have been several letters to The
Star recently which would indicate that
have stated it is not safe for women
to walk on the streets at night in the
District of Columbia.
have never made such a statement
nor do believe that conditions in the
District of Columbia would warrant
such statement.
1t is true that there have been purse
snatchings and so-called yoke robberies
of elderly women and men on the
streets recently as there have been for
many, many years and feel that every
one should be seriouly concerned about
such cases whether the number is small
or large.
The Metropolitan Police Department
is now, and has been over the years,
very much concerned whenever a seri-
GUS crime is committed and all-out
efforts are made first, to apprehend
the criminal, and second, to prevent
other similar crimes.
AS an example, in December, 1852.
when there was sharp rise in crime
here, every member of the department
was brought back for additional night
duty, without compensation. Again, in
January. 1854, all members of this de-
partment worked total of $4,000 hours
of overtime without pay or compen-
satory time to cope with the rise in
crime.
More recently. in January, 1855, we
have started a system that has been
referred to in the press as the "dusk-to-
dawn" patrol. Additional uniformed
officers from the Traffic Division, Police
Training School and other units, with
plainclothesmen from several units of
the department. have been added to the
regular precinct and detective bureau
forces to work in two platoons or shifts
from pm. to 2 am. and from 10
pm. to am.
I have also stated publicly on several
occasions that the regular force should
give more attention to the prevention
of serious crimes and less time to minor
violations, such as minor parking vio-
lationS. do not mean that our de-
partment should Shirk the responsibility
of the enforcement of any laws or regu-
lations, but that they should be con-
sidered in the order of their importance.
In 1854, there was a reduction Of
serious crime in the District OF Colum-
bia of nearly 10 per cent under the year
1858. At the same time. serious crime
increased 85 per cent on national
average. The present crime figures so
far in 1855 are even lower than in 1854,
which I think is encouraging.
Within the past two weeks our de-
partment has made arrests that have
cleared a majority of the purse snatch
ings and yokings committed against
elderly men and women since January l.
Fifteen such cases were committed dur
ing that period by seven individuals
working together in two groups of three
and four each. In many other cases.
often through the very courageous acts
of citizens, criminals have been appre-
hended at or near the scene OF the
crime.
The dusk dawn" patrol in recent
weeks has again shown that the best
deterrent to crime is the presence OF an
adequate number of uniformed foot
patrolmen on the streets with proper
balance of radio-equipped scout cars,
patrol wagons, motorcycles and Detec-.
tive Bureau cars. a,
1t has been proven over and over
again that there is distinct relation
ship of the incidence Of crime with the
number of police officers on the street.
hope that in the near future the
District of Columbia will be in a posi-
ton to afford force of minimum OF
$500 men, which is 222 men more than
our present authorized force.
Robert v. Murray,
Chief Of Police.