The “transfer” system, which is nothing more than police railroading, is the most active medium of getting an honest and incorruptible policeman out of the way. If a man shows an inclination to balk at the commands of his superior who is but the agent of the great Vice Trust, he is speedily transferred to a harmless post where he is forgotten and remembered only when paid his monthly salary.
An incident of how the honest policemen suffer is the following:
Six unsophisticated policemen, anxious to show their mettle and overzealous in the performance of their duty, discovered a hilarious and richly paying crap game running at Lake and Carpenter streets. They decided it was their duty to raid it. They did so. They thought they would be commended by their superior officers for their conduct.
Instead of commendation they were told they were inefficient and material that would never make good policemen.
Two days later they were transferred to South Chicago. That meant that they were obliged to travel thirty-two miles each day from their homes on the West side to their posts on the far South side.
Is it necessary to say why?
Simply because in doing their duty in raiding the crap game, they spoiled the profits of the Vice Trust. The game was run by a man who paid an enormous amount of monthly protection money to these men’s masters. They had “tread on somebody’s feet.”
Investigation of records of transfers in the department showed that thirty per cent of the transfers were caused for such reasons. The record sheets of men showed, in many instances, that a few days before their transfers they had antagonized the great Vice Trust by attempting to do their duty to the public which entrusted them to enforce the laws.
As an instance of how the “transfer game” may be worked with telling effect even on a police official who refuses to give his powers to the protection of gambling, the following suits the purpose.
A prominent political leader, anxious to gather spoils, went to a certain police lieutenant on the North side, and said to him: