CHAPTER XXI
THE ROGUES GALLERY AND THE THIRD DEGREE
One of the most interesting departments of the Detective Bureau is the Rogues’ Gallery. This branch contains the records of nearly a hundred thousand criminals. It is only within recent years that the police have begun to realize the importance of this department of the service. Not only do they photograph and take measurements of all criminals, but since the time of Sergeant Thomas Adams they preserve clippings from all the newspapers which in any way throw light upon the career of a criminal. These clippings are kept in large envelopes, fastened together by rubber bands.
The Clipping Bureau at Headquarters has for some years been in charge of two well known lieutenants, Sheridan and Allen, who seem to have a special talent for this kind of labor. They seem to be walking cyclopedias of criminal information as far as the newspapers are concerned.
One or the other of these specialists is on hand every hour of the day, assisting the men of the department in giving clues, as well as collecting records of beginners in crime. Frequently these records are loaned to the Judges of Criminal Courts before sentence is passed on old offenders. This branch of the Bureau is over thirty years old, and is of immense importance to the department.
Whenever any of the two or three hundred officers of the Detective Bureau make an arrest, in or out of the city, the prisoner is forthwith taken to Police Headquarters, where his measurements and picture are taken for the Rogues’ Gallery. And all this is done before they have found out whether he is innocent or guilty. Indeed, it frequently occurs that the pictures of innocent men remain in the Gallery for years. Once there, they are not removed, unless by order of the Supreme Court. But if an appeal is made to the Commissioner of the Police, he will remove an offending picture if you can show that you were innocent of the crime charged against you, and were never arrested for a crime previously.
Up to the first of January, 1909, the total number of pictures in the Rogues’ Gallery was as follows:
New York, 82,363; Brooklyn, 13,264; total, 95,627.
This besides over 7,000 finger marks taken from August, 1906, till same date.
According to the best judicial authorities, the police have no right to take the picture of a man accused of crime and place it in the Rogues’ Gallery till after his conviction. For “mugging” Banker Jenkins, in defiance of Justice Burr’s order, Captain Kuhne, of the Brooklyn Detective Bureau, was sentenced to thirty days in Raymond street Jail, and fined $500 besides. The case was submitted to the highest court in the State, and last June the Court of Appeals decided that the sentence passed on the Police Captain was just. After a time, “mugging” contrary to law may become an unprofitable business.