The work of the New York policeman may be briefly summed up as follows: He is an enforcer of the law, a protector of society, a judge and jury to settle scores of cases that must be decided offhand without a moment’s hesitation, a preventor and detector of crime and a suppressor of lawlessness and violence. In his daily duties he removes obstacles to good order, stands for the liberty, peace and security of the citizen and in general looks after the moral welfare of the people.
More than that, the policeman should know the character of every gin-mill in the Precinct, the disorderly houses, the gambling hells, if any, where the crooks hang out, and the suspicious characters, who will need continual watching, to whom he should be a constant terror. All of which means that it will be necessary for him to patrol his post faithfully, otherwise he will not know these things.
The law gives him vast discretionary powers, which on the one hand involves personal liberty and guarantees prompt measures of relief in cases of emergency; yet his work is two-fold—administrative and judicial—to enforce the law and if possible prevent crime.
One of the main reasons why grafting and other abuses continued so long in the New York Police Department is on account of the “pull” that certain ones had. The policeman with a “pull” has been known to neglect his duty in a most shameful manner and when called to account could snap his fingers in the face of his superior. As long as the District Leader is a power at headquarters, all the offending policeman has to do is to “make it right with him” and he in turn sees the man-higher-up of his own party. Sometimes an officer received a “make-believe reprimand” but no more. The hard and fast discipline of the department was only for the man who had no political friends.
The total police appropriations for 1909 is $14,452,028.85 besides $400,000 for pensions, which makes the sum total expended on the Police of Greater New York for the present year $14,852,028.85.
The sum total of the Police work in this city for the past year is as follows:
| Whole number of arrests in Greater New York | 244,822 |
| Convictions | 140,904 |
Of the 104,000 discharges, 84,381 were liberated on the preliminary examination, which clearly shows that they were innocent of the charge or charges preferred against them. These outrages occur all the time in New York but would not be tolerated in Russia or Central Africa. According to Commissioner Bingham’s report in my possession there were 25,209 arrests for felonies, but only 6,099 convictions. This shows that 19,110 crooks got clear. That is to say, the crimes were committed but the crooks slipped away. Any one who will carefully examine the report will see at a glance that by far the larger number of arrests were for minor offences. Push cart peddlers are arrested daily for the crime (?) of standing longer than ten minutes in one place. And a multitude of boys for playing ball on the street, but the unterrified criminal remains at large.
On account of some differences of opinion between Mayor McClellan and Commissioner Bingham over the Duffy case, the Mayor ousted Bingham on the last of June and put in his place Deputy Commissioner Baker of Brooklyn. Commissioner Bingham may have some peculiar ways about him but other than that the common opinion of the best people in every grade of life is that he was a fearless official, and more than that he raised the standard of the police department higher than ever it was before. He was also an absolutely honest man. In this opinion we believe we have some of the best men in the city on our side. And we believe his removal was another example of vicious politics.