Police organization today.
During the past three-quarters of a century the system of municipal police has been steadily improved. The police are organized on what is practically a military model, with a commissioner or chief in command. Under him are deputies at headquarters, captains and lieutenants in charge of stations, sergeants and patrolmen, who do the work of investigating, making arrests, handling traffic, and patrolling the streets. The patrolmen in most American cities are now selected by civil service tests; they have regular hours on and off duty, and are subject to strict discipline. The large cities have established training schools in which newly-appointed policemen receive instruction for a month or more before they are sent to do regular duty. The number of policemen in all large cities has had to be greatly increased during recent years because of the growing need for traffic officers. A considerable proportion of the whole force is now assigned to this duty at certain hours of the day. Policewomen are now being appointed in most of the larger cities because there are various forms of duty which it is believed they can perform more effectively than men.
State constabularies.
Police protection, until recent years, has been largely confined to the cities and towns; the rural districts have had to depend upon civilian constables and the sheriff’s deputies. Some states, however, have now established bodies known as state constabularies, the members of which patrol the country roads and perform the usual functions of police in cities. Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, and other states have undertaken to give the rural districts adequate protection in this way. The men are equipped with motorcycles and are thus enabled to cover large areas of territory in the course of a day. The constabulary is under the control of the governor and may be used in any portion of the state. The establishment of these state police forces has been opposed by the labor organizations which fear that they may be used to coerce strikers during labor controversies.
Our enormous annual losses by fire.
Fire Prevention.—The annual loss by fire in the United States is larger than that of all European countries put together. Chicago and Paris are cities of about the same size; but the yearly fire-losses in the former are four or five times that of the latter. Whether New York has a larger population than London is still a disputed question but there is no dispute about which has the larger number of fires. New York City holds the world’s record in fire-losses, seven or eight million dollars per annum.
In every part of the United States the losses are enormous year after year. It has been estimated that they amount to half a million dollars per day, taking the country as a whole. If all the buildings burned in the United States during a single year were placed side by side they would form an unbroken street from Chicago to New York. The loss of life in these fires is also appalling; it amounts to about three thousand per year. What are the reasons for this situation; why is it so much worse than in other countries?
Reasons for this heavy loss.
There are two reasons for it; one of them we cannot control, the other we can. We cannot easily alter the fact that most of the buildings, whether in the cities or the rural districts of the United States, have been built of inflammable materials. Lumber has been cheap and it has been used lavishly. In Europe most buildings are of brick or stone.[[90]] With the depletion of the timber supply in America and the increased price of lumber fewer frame buildings will be constructed in the United States as time goes on. The other reason for our large fire-losses is one which can be controlled. It is summed up in a single word—carelessness. To some extent this carelessness is the fault of the public authorities; to a larger extent it is the fault of private individuals.
Public prevention measures.