The finest looking and largest men are detailed for service on Broadway. One of their principal duties is to keep the street free from obstructions, no slight task when one considers the usual jam in the great thoroughfare. It is a common habit to denounce the “Broadway Squad” as more ornamental
than useful, but the habitués of that street can testify to the arduous labor performed by the “giants,” and the amount of protection afforded by them to the merchants and promenaders. Scarcely a day passes that they do not prevent robberies and cut short the operations of pickpockets.
The number of arrests made by the force is fair evidence of their efficiency. Since 1862 the annual number has been as follows:
| Total arrests in New York | |
| 1862 | 82,072 |
| 1863 | 61,888 |
| 1864 | 54,751 |
| 1865 | 68,873 |
| 1866 | 75,630 |
| 1867 | 80,532 |
| 1868 | 78,451 |
| 1869 | 72,984 |
During the year 1869, the arrests were divided as follows:
| Males | 51,446 |
| Females | 21,538 |
The principal causes for which these arrests were made were as follows:
| Males | Females | |
| Assault and Battery | 5,638 | 1,161 |
| Disorderly conduct | 9,376 | 5,559 |
| Intoxication | 15,918 | 8,105 |
| Intoxication and disorderly conduct | 5,232 | 3,466 |
| Petty larceny | 3,700 | 1,209 |
| Grand larceny | 1,623 | 499 |
| Malicious mischief | 1,081 | 32 |
| Vagrancy | 1,065 | 701 |
During the past nine years over 73,000 lost children have been restored to their parents by the police. More than 40,000 houses have been found open at night, owing to the carelessness of the inmates, who have been warned of their danger by the police in time to prevent robbery. There is scarcely a fire but is marked by the individual heroism of some member of the force, and the daily papers abound in instances of rescues from
drowning by the policemen stationed along the docks. In times of riot and other public danger, the police force have never been found lacking, and they have fairly won the “flag of honor” which the citizens of New York are about to present to them in recognition of their gallant and efficient services on the 12th of July, 1871. That there are individuals whose conduct reflects discredit upon the force is but natural; but as a whole, there does not exist a more devoted, gallant, and efficient body of men than those composing the police of New York.