UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
POLICE
ADMINISTRATION
By RAYMOND B. FOSDICK
PART III
OF THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION SURVEY OF
CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN CLEVELAND
Price $1.00
POLICE ADMINISTRATION
THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION
H02 Swetland Building, Cleveland, Ohio
COMMITTEE
J. D. Williamson, Chairman
Thomas G. Fitzsimons
Malcolm L. McBride
W. H. Prescott
Belle Sherwin
Leonard P. Ayres, Secretary
James R. Garfield, Counsel
Raymond Moley, Director
THE SURVEY OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Roscoe Pound 1
Felix Frankfurter i^^''^^^^^^
Amos Burt Thompson, Chairman of the
Advbory Committee
POLICE
ADMINISTRATION
BY
RAYMOND B. FOSDICK
AUTHOR OF '■ AMERICAN POLICE SYSTEMS '
PART III
OF THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION SURVEY OF
CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN CLEVELAND
Copyright, 1921, by
The Cleveland Foundation
FOREWORD
THIS is the third of eight sections of the report of the Cleve-
land Foundation Survey of Criminal Justice in Cleveland.
The survey was directed and the reports edited by Roscoe
Pound and FeUx Frankfurter. Sections which have been pub-
lished are:
The Criminal Courts, by Reginald Heber Smith and Herbert B.
Ehrmann
Prosecution, by Alfred Bettman
Other sections to be published are :
Penal Treatment and Correctional Institutions, by Burdette G.
Lewis
Medical Science and Criminal Justice, by Dr. Herman M. Adler.
Newspapers and Criminal Justice, by M. K. Wisehart
Legal Education in Cleveland, by Albert M. Kales
Criminal Justice in the American City, a Summary, by Roscoe
Pound
The sections are being published first in separate form, each
bound in paper. About November 10 the report will be available
in a single volume, cloth bound. Orders for separate sections or
the bound volume may be left with book-stores or with the Cleve-
land Foundation, 1202 Swetland Building.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Foreword v
List of Tables viii
CHAPTER
I. The Problem 1
II. Present Conditions 4
III. The Organization of the Force 8
Scope of the Police Survey 9
The Problem of Administration 10
The Machinery of Police Administration in Cleveland 10
Recommendations 14
IV. Provision of Personnel — Its Selection and Training 22
Previous Occupation 22
Age of Appointees 24
Turnover in the Patrol Force 26
Civil Service as a Source of Recruits 31
Police Training School 32
V. Promotion 34
The System of Promotion 34
Limitations and Defects of the System 36
Recommendations 40
VI. Discipline 43
Record of Formal Disciplinary Actions 45
Appeals 47
Recommendations 51
VII. Uniform Patrol Service 53
Number of Policemen Needed 55
Methods of Patrol 57
Patrol Booths 59
Precinct Stations 60
Recommendations 61
VIII. The Detective Bureau 62
Poor Quality of Detectives 64
Poor Work of Detective Bureau 67
Inadequate Supervision of Detective Work 68
Recommendations 69
IX. Special Service Division 73
Other Crime Prevention Units Needed 75
X. The Secretarial Division 79
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE PAGE
1. Number of Appointments and Resignations of Men Appointed in Years 1914,
1916, 1918, 1919, 1920 27
2. Combined Record of Appointments, Resignations, and Dismissals 27
3. Median Scores and Range of Scores of Police Divisions 65
4. Distribution of Intelligence Ratings 66
5. Summary of Distribution of Intelligence Ratings 66
POLICE ADMINISTRATION
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
A CURSORY examination of the problem of crime in Cleveland
produces some startling facts. For the year 1920 Cleveland, with
' approximately 800,000 population, had six times as many murders
as London, with 8,000,000 population. For every robbery or assault with
intent to rob committed during this same period in London there were
17 such crimes committed in Cleveland. Cleveland had as many murders
during the first three months of the present year as London had during
all of 1920. Liverpool is about one and one-half times larger than Cleve-
land, and yet in 1919 Cleveland reported 31 robberies for each one re-
ported in Liverpool, and three times the number of murders and man-
slaughters. Practically the same ratio holds between Cleveland and
Glasgow. There are more robberies and assaults to rob in Cleveland
every year than in all England, Scotland, and Wales put together. In
1919 there were 2,327 automobiles stolen in Cleveland; in London there
were 290; in Liverpool, 10.
Comparisons of this kind between Cleveland, on the one hand, and
European cities, on the other, could be almost indefinitely extended.
There is no gainsaying the fact that crime in Cleveland far exceeds, in
point of volume, the crime of European cities of equal or larger size. And
yet, compared with other American cities, Cleveland's record does not
show to any special disadvantage. For the first quarter of 1921 there
were four more murders committed in Detroit than in Cleveland, and
nearly twice as many automobiles stolen in Detroit. During the first
three months of 1921 St. Louis had 481 robberies, while Cleveland had
272; for the same period complaints of burglary and housebreaking in
St. Louis numbered 1,106, as compared to 565 such complaints in Cleve-
land. For this same period the number of murders in Buffalo, a much
smaller city, equaled those in Cleveland, and burglaries, housebreakings,
and larcenies were almost as numerous. In 1919 Chicago, more than
three times the size of Cleveland, had 293 murders and manslaughters,
2 [11
compared with Cleveland's 55, so that the ratio was easily two to one in
Cleveland's favor; the 1920 statistics of the two cities show an even
better proportion for Cleveland.
On the other side of the scale, for the first three months of the present
year Cleveland had more than twice the number of robberies and assaults
to rob that Detroit had, and a similar large proportion of burglaries and
housebreakings. During this period there were 296 automobiles stolen
in St. Louis, as against 446 in Cleveland. Cleveland is approximately
three times larger than Toledo, and yet in 1920 Cleveland had 87 mur-
ders, while Toledo had only 11.
Another basis of comparison is between the crime statistics of Cleve-
land in 1921 and Cleveland in former years. For the first six months of
1921, the period in which this survey was carried on, the number of
murders committed in Cleveland was 15. For the same period in 1920
the number of murders was 30. Similarly, during this same period, there
was a decrease of burglaries and larcenies from 573 in 1920 to 541 in 1921.
On the other hand, robberies and assaults to rob increased, as between
the two periods, from 454 to 534, and the number of automobiles stolen
increased from 1,156 to 1,238. The following figures show the average
number of complaints for the first quarter of each of the four years from
1917 to 1920 inclusive, classified according to four outstanding crimes:
Robbery and assault to rob 283
Burglar\' and larceny 418
Murder 17
Automobiles driven away 361
The following figures give the number of complaints of the same crimes
for the first quarter of 1921:
Robbery and assault to rob 272
Burglarj' and larceny 265
Murder 6
Automobiles driven away 446
Obviously, there has been some improvement within the last four years.
All in all, crime conditions are no more vicious in Cleveland than they
are in other American cities. In point of volume of crime in relation to
size of population Cleveland is neither much better nor much worse than
the other municipalities of the United States. It is when we compare
Cleveland with cities like London, Glasgow, Liverpool, or almost any
other European municipality that ominous contrasts are obtained. In
this respect, therefore, Cleveland's problem is the problem of America,
[21
for the same causes that are maintaining the high crime rate of Chicago,
St. Louis, New York, Detroit, and San Francisco are operating here.
What are these causes? Here we can only hint at some of the deeper
social and economic causes. The lack of homogeneity in our population
and its increasing instability, the absence of settled habits and traditions
of order, the breakdown of the administration of criminal law in the
United States, and the many avenues by which offenders can escape
punishment, our easy habit of passing laws which do not represent com-
munity standards or desires, our lack of cohesive industrial organization,
our distrust of experts in the management of governmental enterprises —
all these are undoubtedly contributing factors.
But there is another factor, still more potent: police machinery in
the United States has not kept pace with modern demands. It has de-
veloped no effective technique to master the burden which modern social
and industrial conditions impose. Clinging to old traditions, bound by
old practices which business and industry long ago discarded, employing
a personnel poorly adapted to its purposes, it grinds away on its per-
functory task without self-criticism, without imagination, and with little
initiative.
From this general indictment the Cleveland police department cannot
be excepted.
CHAPTER II
PRESENT CONDITIONS
THE present police department of Cleveland dates from 1866. In
that year the force, consisting of a marshal and 44 watchmen, was
reorganized on a semi-military basis, with a superintendent, cap-
tains, sergeants, detectives, and patrolmen. In the next forty years
there followed many modifications of the scheme for administering the
force; but few changes, other than increases in numbers, occurred in the
internal organization. In 1907 the force totaled 614: a chief, one in-
spector, four captains, 27 lieutenants, 28 sergeants, 550 patrolmen, a
secretary, surgeon, and detective sergeant. Of the 550 patrolmen, 20
were designated as detectives. At the beginning of 1921 the authorized
force of regular police totaled 1,381,' including —
1 chief
1 secretary
1 inspector
4 deputy inspectors
1 superintendent of criminal investigation
1 surgeon
1 veterinary surgeon
1 superintendent of civil investigation
1 superintendent of tailor shop
17 captains
53 lieutenants
99 sergeants
75 detectives
1,125 patrolmen
Since 1866 Cleveland has gi'own from a small town to the fifth city in
the United States. It has grown not only in size, but in the heterogeneity
of its population and in the complexity of its social and business life.
From a town in which many people knew each other intimately and thus
• Ordinance No. 52236 (Ordinances of 1920). The actual number of men em-
ployed has been below the authorized number.
14]
furnished a substantial degree of self-protection and aid to the police,
Cleveland has become, like all other communities of its size in modern
times, a city of strangers.
In contrast with this complex growth of the city the police depart-
ment of 1921 is little more than a physical enlargement of the depart-
ment of 1866. Other branches of the municipal government have made
marked progress along lines of scientific development. The school sys-
tem, public utilities, fire fighting, business offices — all these have taken on
a new character compared with their prototypes of a generation ago.
The police department has shown no such vitality — no such capacity to
make itself over on a new and improved pattern, no willingness to reshape
its methods to modern demands. Instead, it has hewn to the line of
tradition, ventured almost nothing in experiment, and copied very little
from the experience of other private and public organizations. Today
the patrol force is distributed and managed exactly as it was twenty or
thirty years ago. There is nothing new in the detective service save
faces and a few meager records. Traffic regulation has been developed,
but this modern necessity has been met only by draining the depart-
ment's resources for coping with crime. No new practices have been
employed for ferreting out and removing conditions that produce crime.
Practically the same methods are employed for combating crime that
were used when Cleveland was just a big neighborhood in which the
police knew everybody.
Let us look a little further. The department has never had and does
not have today the trained and intelligent leadership which European
police forces have long enjoyed. Cleveland's directors of public safety
and her chiefs of police come and go, apparently with scant appreciation
by the public of the fact that transient administration is fatal to success
in any complex technical enterprise. Moreover, the line of authority
between the director of public safety and the chief of police is so vaguely
drawn that effective administration would be impossible even under the
best of conditions. Lacking in leadership, the department lacks, too, in
the quality of its working personnel. Machinists, motormen, truckmen,
and other manual workers — these are the sources from which Cleveland
takes the men upon whom she imposes tasks requiring a high degree of
intelligence and technical skill, besides a keen appreciation of social
values.
Similarly, we find adherence to a rigid organization applying to the
entire force, regardless of the great difference in tj^jes of work attempted
by the various divisions of the service. We find the department acting as
the eyes and ears of other city departments in reporting on the physical
15]
conditions of the city, promoting the safety of citizens in public places,
arresting criminals, and preventing the commission of crimes, but using
the same kind of man for all these tasks and clearing them through the
same inelastic organization.
The department is trj-dng heroically today to "catch up" in the ap-
prehension of criminals and the prevention of crime. Its energies, how-
ever, are chiefly consumed in repairing damage that is not anticipated.
Almost nothing is being done to find out the causes of crime, to learn the
sources from which criminals are sprung, or to forestall their operations.
The department takes no leading part in the study of criminals and their
characteristic^; it does not even avail itself of facilities for study and
experiment that have been developed by schools, climes, and other pri-
vate and public organizations.
This lack of intelligence and imagination in Cleveland's poUce work is
shown in the ragged character of the internal arrangements of the depart-
ment. No private business whose affairs were carried on in such hit-or-
miss fashion could escape bankruptcy. The record books of the depart-
ment are poorly kept, sometimes showing erasures, changes, and addi-
tions. Nearly all reports made by patrohnen and detectives are wTitten
in pencil. There are no current consolidated reports showing summaries
of operations, ^^^th comparative data for other periods which might be
used for purposes of administrative control. Instead, there is a great
mass of detailed matter passing over and lodging upon the chief's desk.
On the other hand, not enough detailed material appears on the desks of
commanding officers of the detective bureau, vice bureau, and precincts.
Policemen are doing the work of clerks, and some, who might better have
been employed as clerks, are doing the work of policemen. Most of the
department's supervnsory work is done on a memory basis, as in 1866,
without even any regular order for making and receiving the verbal sum-
maries of current business. Every one, from the chief down, appears to
be engaged with the interesting things of the moment. Study and analy-
sis of persisting or recurring problems and of results in the aggregate are
hardly known.
Inadequate equipment adds to this appearance of raggedness. No
private business which has to show results could work with the depart-
ment's equipment. The headquarters building is wholly inadequate.
Workers in every division are cramped for space, with resulting confusion
and chaos. If the record bureau facilities are contrasted with those of a
private enterprise havmg an equal volume of business, the disadvantages
under which the police are working will be readily seen. There are no
typewriters in the precincts save those privately owned. Supervising
[6]
inspectors do not have automobiles in which to cover the city. Members
of the automobile recovery squad are frequently without a car, and must
go on foot to search for stolen automobiles. The signal system is wholly
inadequate for the ordinary needs of communicating with men doing
field duty. No motor equipment is available for regular patrol duty.
A general picture of the police service in Cleveland gives the impres-
sion of a group of men, singularly free from scandal and vicious cor-
ruption, but working in a rut, without intelligence or constructive policy,
on an unimaginative, perfunctory routine. As a matter of fact, this same
indictment could be drawn against most of the police forces of America.
The Cleveland department is no worse than many others; in some re-
spects it is better. Official lethargy lies behind much that is distressing
in this picture. There is another kind of lethargy, however, which can-
not escape its share of the responsibility. It is the lethargy of pubhc
opinion, the community's easy habit of assuming that governmental ma-
chinery will somehow or other run itself, even in the face of meager equip-
ment and inadequate funds.
[7]
CHAPTER III
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FORCE
THE police service of Cleveland is organized as a division of the
department of public safety. The department of which the police
division forms a part is administered by a director appointed by
the mayor and serving at his pleasure. The charter provides that " under
the direction of the mayor the director of public safety shall be the execu-
tive head of the divisions of police and fire." The division of poUce is
headed by a chief of police, who is appointed by the mayor, subject to
civil serv'ice rules and regulations. The right to suspend the chief is
lodged exclusively with the mayor. In case of such suspension, the
charter provides that the mayor "shall forthwith certify the fact, to-
gether with the cause of such suspension, to the civil service commission,
who within five days from the date of the receipt of such notice shall
proceed to hear such charges and render judgment thereon, which judg-
ment shall be final."^
The rank and file of the police service are appointed by the director of
public safety. The chief of police has the exclusive right to suspend any
officers or employees in the poUce division. In case of suspension the
charter provides that a trial shall be held by the director, who is em-
powered to render judgment, "which judgment, if sustained, may be
suspension, reduction in rank, or dismissal, and such judgment in the
matter shall be final, except as otherwise hereinafter provided." The
charter further provides that a member of the division of police may
appeal to the civil service commission from the decision of the director of
pubhc safety within ten days after the date of suspension from duty, re-
duction in rank, or dismissal. In such appealed cases the civil service
commission has the pov/er to "affirm, disaffirm, or modify the judgment
of the director of public safety, and its judgment in the matter shall be
final."
All members of the professional force enter the department as patrol-
men, after examinations conducted by the civil service commission.
Promotions to the higher ranks, with the exception of the rank of chief of
» Cleveland City Charter, Sec. 107.
police, are made as a result of competitive civil service examinations. In
addition to these ranks of the professional police force there is a super-
intendent of criminal investigation (criminal identification), a surgeon,
superintendent of civil investigation, veterinary surgeon, and superin-
tendent of the tailor shop. Civilians are employed as matrons, chauffeurs,
tailors, caretakers, janitresses, mechanics, and telephone operators.
The major part of the regular police personnel is distributed by types
of work in four main divisions as follows: the unifonned patrol force, the
division of traffic regulation, the detective division, and the vice squad.
In addition to these main divisions are several small auxiliary units, such
as the criminal identification bureau, information bureau, and record
bureau, to which patrolmen and officers are assigned in the numbers re-
quired. Ranks and grades are not affected by assignment and transfer
from one bureau or division to another, although some increase in salary
is granted to sergeants who are detailed to the vice squad and to patrol-
men assigned to serve regularly in the detective division.
For purposes of distributing the working force of the department geo-
grapliically the city has been divided into 15 precincts, each having a
precinct station house. The general administration of police affairs is
carried on at police headquarters, which also includes the first precinct
station, detective headquarters, vice squad, and all the special units.
Scope of the Police Survey
The subjects of study in this survey have been the relations between
the civil service board, the public safety department, and the various
police divisions and bureaus, the character of the supervision of police
work in its many phases, the methods of procedure, the records and re-
ports maintained for showing work accomplished, and the volume of
crime dealt with.
In the main, appraisals of efficiency relate to methods of procedure
and departmental organization viewed as an impersonal instrument of
government. The relation of officials to one another and to their work
in general has been looked at in the light of the office rather than of the
individual. While this view of police administration has necessarily
represented conditions prevailing during the period covered by the inves-
tigation, and is, therefore, an analysis of the practices and accomplish-
ments of individuals who happened to be in office at that time, we have
kept in mind throughout that it is methods rather than persons which
form the permanent part of the organization, and it is the former, there-
fore, with which the larger purposes of the survey are concerned. Thus
it has been the office of the chief of police, with its powers, duties, prac-
19]
tices, and accomplishments, rather than Chief Frank W. Smith, that has
been the subject of investigation. The present personnel will, in due
course, be separated entirely from police administration, and any ap-
praisal of their efficiency as individuals will then be of no value. But the
practices employed and policies laid down by the present personnel must
necessarily form the basis for the development of the future.
The Problem of Administration
The task of the administration of police business in Cleveland con-
sists in directing the daily activities of some 1,200 men. Keeping each
of these men keyed up to his best is a problem in the management of
human beings. Their work in turn consists in regulating human relations
and thus promoting safety and good order in the community.
To achieve these ends in a city of the size of Cleveland a large organ-
ization with imposing equipment and record systems must be provided.
It must be noted, however, that the ultimate end of this complex super-
structure of organization is to be found in the acts of individual poUce-
men, operating for the most part alone and initially unaided. The per-
sonnel of the department rarely moves in large units; the organization
acts through individual members in performing the major part of the
daily routine. The real poUce work is not done at headquarters or in
stations, but on the beat.
Matters of organization, records, reports, and methods of procedure
are merely convenient instruments to see that policemen are made avail-
able for duty and to provide some basis for estimating the effectiveness
of these field forces. But police work itself, in its final analysis, is 'wholly
personal. The sum of the generally isolated observations, investigations,
and acts of individual policemen constitutes the primary pohce work of
the department. The heart of the business of police administration, there-
fore, consists in training, stimulating, and directing men in the exercise of
good judgment and initiative while on post or assignment in the field.
The work of a police department is, therefore, not readily reduced to
well-defined standards of accomplishment. It involves such intangible
and modifiable factors as good judgment, sympathy, patience, courage,
and intelligence. Added to these there must be pride of profession, en-
thusiasm, and, above all, a spirit and willingness to take great pains in
the prosecution of the work.
The Machinery of Police Administration in Cleveland
Let us see how well the administrative machinery of the Cleveland
pohce department fulfils its task of administering these personal relations.
[10]
Charter provisions covering the question of responsibihty for the admin-
istration of pohce business are singularly confusing in terminology. The
language is clear enough, however, to show that a deliberate attempt has
been made to distribute specific powers between the director of public
safety and the chief of police. Authority is apparently given to the chief
by one provision of the charter, only to be taken away by another. Re-
garding general powers and duties in the department of public safety the
charter reads : " Under the direction of the mayor the director of public safety
shall be the executive head of the divisions of police and fire. He shall also
be the chief administrative authority in all matters affecting the inspection
and regidation of the erection, maintenance, repair, and occupancy of build-
ings J^^ Thus, with regard to the division of buildings, which is coordinate
with the divisions of fire and police in the department of public safety,
the charter specifies that the director shall be the administrative author-
ity, while his responsibility with regard to the police and fire divisions
would seem to be of a different kind. The distinction here made ap-
parently implies that in the police and fire divisions, as distinguished
from the division of buildings, the chiefs of the respective divisions are
the administrative heads, with the director as a sort of over-lord. The
charter does not specifically state that the chief of police is to be con-
sidered the administrative authority of the division of police, but the
prescriptions relating to his appointment and removal by the mayor and
not by the director, and the power-s and duties ascribed to him, would
seem to indicate that such was the intention.
Another section of the charter reads: ^'The chief of the division of
police shall have exclusive control of the stationing and transfer of all patrol-
men, and other officers and employees constituting the police force, under such
rules and regulations as the director of public safety may prescribe. The
director of public safety shall have the exclusive management and control of
such other officers and employees as shall be employed in the administration
of the affairs of the division.""^ Here again we are confronted by an ap-
parent conflict. Where does the authority of the chief leave off and that
of the director of public safety begin? An inquiry along historical lines
reveals that the probable intention of the framers of the charter was to
charge the chief with responsibility for carrying on police enterprise
proper, while the director was to have full responsibility in purely busi-
ness matters, such as the purchase of supplies and equipment, repair
and upkeep of property. If this be true, it must be pointed out that the
intention was not well fortified by later provisions in the charter, wherein
1 City Charter, Sec. 102. 2 city Charter, Sec. 103.
[11]
the chief — or administrative head of the "police force" — is shorn of all
final authority in important matters governing the selection, promotion,
and discipline of the police force.
Again, " The chiefs of the divisions of police and fire shall have the ex-
clusive right to suspend any of the officers or employees in their respective
divisiomvho may he under their management and control. * * * " This
is no more than the ordinary authority attaching to the office of an ad-
ministrative head of a department. In the next sentence, however, this
language occurs : " // any officer or employee he suspended, as herein provided,
the chief of the division concerned shall forthwith in writing certify the fact,
together with the cause for the suspension, to the director ofpuhlic safety who,
ivithin five days from the receipt thereof, shall proceed to inquire into the
cause of such suspensioti and render judgment thereon, which judgment, if
the charge be sustained, may he suspension, reduction in rank, or disjnissal,
and such judgment in the matter shall he final, except as hereinafter pro-
vided.'"
Thus it appears that the chief is given wide powers, — wider than in
most cities where there is a non-professional administrative head, such as
the director of public safety, between the mayor and the chief, — that he
is charged with the initiation of authority in administration, that is, has
"exclusive" control under ordinary circumstances, while the director's
connection with the routine affairs of the police division is restricted to
business matters or, as the charter vaguely calls it, "administration of
the affairs of the division." Yet, when the real test of "exclusive" con-
trol appears, it is found that the director and not the chief has all the
power. The director makes all of the reall}' important decisions, as, for
example, in the matter of preparing the budget for police service, making
rules and regulations, conducting disciplinary trials, and making the
selections for appointment and promotions from the civil service lists.
The director, however, is not required, nor does he have an opportunity,
to estabUsh immediate and constant contact with the actual administra-
tive processes of police work.
There is another odd arrangement in connection with the distribution
of powers and the establishment of a line of responsibility between the
two heads of the police service. The director, while depending on the
chief to exercise "exclusive" control up to the point where the director
himself makes the really important decisions, does not have direct con-
trol over the chief, but merely over the facilities with which the chief has
to work. The chief is appointed by the mayor and not by the director.
' City Charter, Sec. 106.
[12 1
Likewise the mayor alone has ^^the exclusive right to suspend the chief of
the division of police or fire for incompetence or any other just and reasonable
cause." As a result, the chief is answerable to the director for his man-
agement of police work, but responsible to the mayor and not the director
as far as his "incompetence" is concerned. Only confused notions re-
specting official responsibility can result from such a situation.
In the matter of disciplinary action, it should be pointed out here
that there is another step in the scale of responsibility beyond the mayor
and director. The municipal civil service commission alone has the
power to pass on charges preferred against the chief of police, and it
renders final judgment as well in all cases involving lower ranks which
may be appealed to the commission from the judgment of the director.^
Under such a scheme of confused responsibility for police business as
has been outlined above, to whom do the people at Cleveland actually
look for results in policing the city? Who is held to account when a wave
of robberies, burglaries, or automobile thefts occurs? Is it the director
of public safety or the chief of police? Which of the two officials bears
the final responsibility? The answer under the present charter is, neither.
Whenever the question of efficiency is called up, the director can point
to the chief and say: "There is the man who is running the department.
I neither appoint him nor remove him; he is subject to civil service pro-
visions. If he doesn't do the job satisfactorily, I am not to blame." A
chief under the same conditions can reply by saying: "If I had the last
word in matters of discipline, so as to weed out the unfit regardless of
their political friends and influences, and keep all others on their toes;
if I could make the rules and regulations governing the department and
could select my men in accordance with my own standards of judgment,
I could accomplish better results." The whole scheme is admirably suited
to the favorite game of "passing the buck" — an especially useful game
where public criticism is involved.
Moreover, the contention of each official, as suggested, would be abso-
lutely correct so far as the charter goes. The director of public safety
has wide general powers, but no specific contacts with the machinery he is
controlling. The chief of police, on the other hand, is checked at a score
of points where an administrator should have free initiative and com-
plete authority. The chief's position at present is like that of a child
driving a horse, while an adult sits beside him ready to grip the reins in
front of his hands, whenever an important decision in the driving arises.
Naturally, under the present arrangement, the whole complexion of ad-
1 This subject will be reviewed in some detail in a later section of this report.
[13]
ministration changes with shifts in the offices of director and chief, and
since neither officer is dependent on the other for appointment or con-
tinuance in office, such changes will be concurrent only by accident.
Experience in the past has shown that with an aggressive type of man
serving as chief the director will become a sort of fifth wheel whose exer-
cise of his charter authority is likely at best to be a source of obstruction.
With a less aggressive chief it is probable that the director will assume
more influence in the disposition of members of the force than is in-
tended in the charter, and more than he is fitted to assume by reason of
the multiplicity of his duties and his remoteness from actual police opera-
tions. Unless the chief be especially aggressive, almost to the point of
standing against the director, the suggestions of the latter, because of his
superior position, will be tantamount to orders. The practice of a
former director of suggesting the names of men whom he desired to have
detailed to the detective bureau, and the famous Order 73,^ are cases in
point. With an aggressive chief of police, as at present, there is every
opportunity of confusing the clear line of responsibility in a way which
reacts against the chief as a penalty instead of reward for his attempted
initiative.
Recommendations
1. The best escape from the difficulties inherent in the present scheme
involves a complete overhauling of the whole administrative machinery.
In the first place, there should be a direct line of responsibility, running
from a single head down through the whole organization. There should
be no such short circuits as now exist between the chief and mayor around
the director, who is the chief's superior. Final authority, commensurate
with responsibility, should be lodged exclusively with the single directing
head. This single leader should be in immediate charge of directing the
operations of the force.
2. To accomplish these ends it is recommended that the police service
be disassociated from the department of public safety and established as
an independent department, coordinate with the other combined divi-
sions of the department of public safety, the finance department, or the
department of public utilities.
From the police point of view, there is no good reason why the police
service should be organically connected with the fire and buildings divi-
sion. On the contrary, there are positive reasons why it should stand
alone. Although both the police and fire divisions are established to
' This order provided that the poHce were not to raid gambUng houses or houses
of ill fame without instructions from the director of public safety.
[14]
secure public safety, their fields of work differ widely. The fact that
the personnel of the two divisions is organized on a semi-military basis
is not sufficient justification for their common administration. The
problems of fire extinguishment are physically definable and the work
of fire prevention is highly specialized and easily reduced to mechanical
standards; the uniformed force of the fire division deals with material
elements. The police force deals largely with human relations; its
problems are to a certain extent intangible. Firemen work in groups
under the immediate direction of their superior officers; they respond to
a fire in their properly assigned places and employ chemicals and other
equipment as they are ordered by their officers in charge. The poUce-
man's work is done largely on his own initiative, prompted by his own
judgment.
Policies affecting fire administration relate almost entirely to the
financial aspects of providing equipment and men that are necessaiy in
the light of definitely known insurance rates and fire hazards. PoUcies
of poHce administration involve social and moral needs which are far
removed from such factors as the storage of inflammables, hose and water
pressure, and building regulations. There is no divided opinion about
the desirability of putting out fires; there is considerable room for divi-
sion of opinion as to how much money the city should pay for the in-
tangible returns of crime prevention to be achieved through an enlarged
and better equipped police force, or even as to ho w far the police may go
in curbing individual liberties in their efforts to prevent crime.
Thus, although these two forces are similarly organized, the objectives
of their work are found to be wholly different and their methods of pro-
cedure widely dissimilar, while the values of their work are appraised on
entirely different bases.
It may be contended that a combination of the police and fire divi-
sions is necessary in order to assure active cooperation on the part of the
police in looking for fires at night, assisting with rescue work, establish-
ing fire Unes, and enforcing the ordinances and regulations of the code of
fire prevention and protection. These things the police must do, but
a common administration of police and fire is not necessary to effect such
cooperation. The duties of the police would remain the same if the two
divisions were not connected by an overhead scheme of management.
It is not reasonable to suppose that the police would neglect the per-
formance of such specific duties merely because their directing head is
not also the directing head of the fire force. One might as well expect
them to neglect making arrests because the head of the police service
is not also in charge of courts and prosecutions, or to fail to report broken
[15]
manholes or leaking hydrants because their division is not organically
connected with the departments of public utilities and public service.
A saving in the expenses of administration may result from com-
bining police, fire, and buildings, and the practice may be defended on
the ground of economy in small cities where these divisions are not large.
In Cleveland, however, the savings in the overhead cost of administra-
tion are more than overbalanced by the loss in efficiency. Moreover,
it is hardly possible to find a man with qualifications of expertnessin
the supervision of the technical matters of fire fighting and building reg-
ulation who qualifies also in understanding the human problems incident
to policing.
It may be sufficient to point out that Cleveland is one of the few large
cities in the United States which still combine the administration of the
police department with that of other branches of the municipal system.
In most other cities the police force was long ago estabhshed as a separate
entity under independent management. The same is true of all Euro-
pean cities. There the police function is regarded as so important that
no attempt is made to confuse its administration by bringing other
public activities under its leadership. The time has come for Cleve-
land to recognize the same principle and to give to the police department
the administrative position which the importance of its work demands.
3. The department of police should be in charge of a single civilian
administrative head, to be known as the director of police. The director
should be appointed by the mayor with full responsibility for adminis-
tering the police service, and should have the exclusive right to name his
own immediate assistants, including the chief ranking office of ihe uni-
formed force to correspond to the present chief of police. Such ap-
pointments should be terminated at the will of the director. It should
be the director's duty to la}-^ down a policy and program for police work,
and to see that such policy is carried into effect by his subordinates.
Under this arrangement the officer who develops the policies of police
service will be subject to public reckoning, since his appointment and
continuance in office depend on the mayor, who is subject to election.
Undivided responsibility and authority would be reposed in a single
officer at the head, and the line of responsibility and authority should
continue downward direct and luibroken.
Such a director should be chosen from outside the professional ranks
of the department, just as the director of public safety has always been
chosen. The management of police business demands as able an ad-
ministrator as can be obtained. Indeed, in a city like Cleveland, and in
many cities of lesser size, the task of police administration is so great
[16]
that the best man obtainable is none too good, and in an endeavor to
find him, no search can be too thorough. That such a leader can be
found in the ranks of a police force is in the highest degree improbable.
The officer who has walked his "beat" as a patrolman, investigated
crime as a detective, and managed the technical routine of station house
activity as lieutenant or captain, is not fitted by this experience to ad-
minister the complex affairs of a large police department. The chances
are rather that he is unfitted for the task. Lacking in administrative
experience, with scant appreciation of the larger possibilities of his
position, often indeed without imagination or resourcefulness, he has
little chance of success, and it would be unwise and cruel to saddle him
with the responsibility. If police management were merely a matter of
assignments, promotions, and discipline; if it had to do only with the
ordering of a well-defined routine, any capable man who himself had
been through the mill might be well adapted to handle it.
But the task, particularly in large cities, is so much broader than
routine, and involves activities of such vital consequence, that only a
high order of creative intelligence can cope with it. The director must
deal with community problems in the large. He must be familiar with
the underlying social forces which are responsible for the need of police
service. Constantly before him must be the conception of the depart-
ment as an agency for the prevention of crime, and the consequent rela-
tion of his work to all activities, social, economic, and educational,
operating to that end. He must be able to interpret pubhc opinion, to
be a community leader, and, above all, he must be qualified to inspire a
great force of policemen. In addition he must have a thorough under-
standing of the principles of administration.
These qualifications are not readily found in the uniformed force,
nor, indeed, are they easily found in any walk of life. For that reason
the search for the right man should be broadcast, and no artificial bar-
riers of politics or residence should be interposed. If the best man
cannot be found in Cleveland, other sources should be examined. A
residential qualification in such cases is as irrelevant as it would be if
applied to the managing director of a railroad or to the head of a medical
school or an experimental laboratory. In European cities there has
been no thought of applying such a test for the reason that no one would
care to limit so narrowly the field of choice. With the talent of Great
Britain to draw from, for example, why should Liverpool or Birming-
ham insist that its chief constable be recruited from its own population?
Or what would be gained if Stuttgart were barred from inviting an
experienced deputy commissioner from Munich to join its staff as com-
3 [17!
missioner, and had, instead, to employ some inferior man from its
citizenship? This is the conception that governs the public service of
European municipalities and to a great extent its application accounts
for the difference in municipal administration here and abroad.
4. Once chosen because of his peculiar abilities, the director of pohce
should be regarded as a permanent fixture. While the right of the mayor
to remove him should remain unabridged, the exercise of that right for
political causes or for reasons other than those relating to his efficiency
should be checked by a public opinion strong enough to insist upon re-
taining a well-tried expert in an office as important as the directorship
of poUce. A constantly shifting directorship of poHce can result in
nothing but chaos. To gauge a well-trained administrator on the basis
of his political faith is to introduce a factor as irrelevant and immaterial
as his opinion on art or literature. When the right man is found for so
highly developed a specialty, the city should cling to him as a business
concern would cling to an indispensable employee. Only proved in-
eflSciency or complete lack of sympathy with the police policies of the
mayor should be sufficient cause for removal.
Here again we can find excellent example in the police departments
not only of England and Scotland, but of France and Switzerland as
well, to say nothing of several American cities where the principle of
continuitj^ in the police directorship has been followed with marked
success. In Boston, Commissioner O'Meara served twelve j^ears under
four different administrations, both Democratic and RepubHcan. The
same situation today holds true in Milwaukee and in Berkeley, Cali-
fornia, where over a long period of years the heads of the two police
departments have served without interruption in spite of the kaleido-
scopic changes in mayors and councils. Similarly, European cities always
appoint their directors and commissioners of police as a board of directors
selects a general manager or other official, not for a definitel}' established
term, but on the basis of satisfactory work. Their task is to find men
capable of serving indefinitely — men who have the abiUty and the will-
ingness to devote a lifetime to the administrative problem. When such a
man is found, there is no disposition to experiment with anybody else.
No one would care to assume responsibility for jeopardizing an organiza-
tion in which, as in all forms of business enterprise, continuity of ad-
ministration is the best guarantee of effectiveness.
5. The director must have under him a chief executive officer who
will serve as the superintendent or general manager of operations. Under
such a scheme, what should be the relationship between the director and
his chief subordinate?
[18]
The director should have the task of laying down the general program
and policy of policing, and of determining the financial needs of the de-
partment. He should represent the department in all its external con-
tacts, such as with the appropriating body, the other departments of
government, as well as the schools, churches, and welfare and civic
agencies. He should determine, as a matter of policy, how much of the
available resources of the department should be devoted to the regula-
tion of traffic, as against the necessity, for example, of carrying on pre-
ventive work in connection with crime. In all the welter of laws and
ordinances he should decide where police emphasis is to be placed.
Once the policy in such matters is determined, it should then fall to
the chief line officer in charge of actual operations to see that these
policies are carried into effect. If there were a question of establishing
one-way streets, for example, or of rerouting street-cars, to facilitate the
movement of traffic, the director would deal with the street railway
company and the commercial interests affected by the proposed changes,
making the decision in cases of conflict between the needs of the general
public and the private interests involved. He would, in the first in-
stance, depend on the recommendation of subordinate experts in the
traffic regulation. When the policy is decided, he would turn to the
chief executive officer to see that the police carry out the new policy.
In short, the director would determine how much and what type of
police service is needed, and the chief professional officer would see that
such service is carried out to the best of his ability with the men and
equipment given him for the purpose. The one asks for certain results
and the other manages the machinery used in getting the results.
A policy may be laid down by the administrative head, but the
manner in which the routine work is executed gives color to the policy.
Hence the head must have a superintendent or general manager of
operations who understands his policies and has sufficient sympathy with
their accomplishment to go about his work with the enthusiasm of con-
viction. Half-hearted execution practically amounts to obstruction. It
is especially important, therefore, for the head of the police department
to be able to choose the man in whom he has personal confidence. On no
other basis can true leadership be developed.
6. For this reason the superintendent or the chief of police — what-
ever his title might be — as the immediate subordinate of the director,
should not be chosen as a result of competitive civil service examinations.
The objection will at once be made that the present scheme, wherein the
office of chief of police is surrounded by the protection of civil service
regulations, makes for continuity of administration in the leadership of
[19]
the police, and that this continuity is the only protection against the
ravages of politics. This assumes, in the first place, that continuity in
this particular office is a guarantee of effective policing, and, in the second
place, that Cleveland is hopelessly unregenerate in the matter of politics
and inferior to other cities of a similar size. It is an open question how
much is gained by an enforced continuity of service which is shorn of
power by officers who are controlled by the fortunes of politics. More-
over, the non-political aspect of the chief's tenure in Cleveland — i. e.,
guarantee against removal on account of politics — is a singularly weak
argument in its form when it is considered that the appointments to the
office have been surrounded by all of the manceuvering known to politics.
In the not remote past the custom has been privately to avow candi-
dacies for appointment to the office of chief whenever a vacancy oc-
curred, or when it was known that a vacancy was about to occur. Thus
some of the higher officers in the department have approached business
men of Cleveland, newspaper editors, and friends to secure their influ-
ence and aid in getting the appointment. Accordingly, newspapers and
other interests have had their candidates, though perhaps not openly
avowed, in much the same way as if the office were an elective one.
The truth of the matter is that civil service protection in high admin-
istrative police positions does not guard the community, certainly in
Cleveland, against politics. Politics can get around any artificial sys-
tem. On the other hand, with public opinion on the alert, politics can be
kept in control without any system at all. In Boston and Detroit the
incumbent superintendents of police, who are the professional heads of
the police force, — corresponding in that relationship to the chief of police
in Cleveland, — have held office thi-oughout successive changes in the
terms of the administrative heads. Yet these officials are not subject to
civil service provisions of any sort. Their appointment and dismissal
rest in the discretion of their superiors. The same is true in London and
other European cities. Such a continuity of service, based on freedom of
choice, has real meaning, but a continuity based on the inherent diffi-
culties of removal through a civil service trial nullifies responsibility and
stultifies the work of any administrator, however enterprising.
What every police force needs is leadership — one official to whom the
community can say, "Thou art the man!" and who has power corre-
sponding to his responsibility. We shall never solve the police problem
in America until we give honest and effective leadership an opportunity
to show what it can do. Some time or other we have to make a begin-
ning of trusting our public officials. Checks and balances to curb and
minimize possible abuses of power have gotten us nowhere. Complex
[20]
systems to prevent bias and unfairness have brought nothing but con-
fusion. It is time to take off a few of the yokes that have made pubUc
administration an impossible task, and put a new emphasis on positive
quahties. The problem before us is not how to build up a structure that
will circumvent the dishonest and incompetent official, but, after finding
a competent and honest official, to surround him with conditions in
which he can make himself effective.
Just as the community should, if necessary, go outside its own boun-
daries to get the best director possible, so the director should disregard
all questions of residence in selecting his chief subordinate. Indeed, in
view of the present demarcations in the police force in Cleveland, due
largely to religious differences, such a step might be distinctly advisable.
So long as there are in the department group-conscious Catholics and
Masons, playing the part of the "ins" and the "outs," with discrimina-
tions practised by one group against the other as opportunity offers,
just so long will it be difficult for a director to choose from the Cleveland
force a chief who can command the unquestioned loyalty and support of
his men. It will probably take the strong hand of an outsider, with no
group to represent, with no old scores to settle, to put the final quietus
to this factional nonsense. In any event the director, as the responsible
head of his department, should be free to select his immediate subordi-
nate on the basis of such qualifications as he himself determines.
21
CHAPTER IV
PROVISION OF PERSONNEI^ITS SELECTION AND
TRAINING
THE charter provides that the police force shall consist of a chief
of police and "such officers, patrolmen, and other employees as may
be provided by ordinance or resolution of the council."^ In accordance
with this provision, the city council determines what is knowTi as the
"authorized" number of police for each rank, from the rank of patrol-
man to inspector of police. The appointing authority is not compelled
to recruit the force up to the authorized strength. He cannot, however,
make appointments in excess of the number set by councilmanic action.
The task of recruiting the force belongs to the civil service commission,
original entrance to the department being by competitive examination.
Actual appointments are made by the director of pubUc safety from
eligible Usts certified by the civil service commission.
An analysis has been made of the original appointments to the depart-
ment from 191-4 up to and including the first two months of 1921, to
determine the type of men who are drawn into police service. Particular
attention has been given the appointments made in 1914 and 1921, since
more nearly normal conditions prevailed in those years. The period be-
tween these two years presented unusual circumstances. Just prior to
this country's entry into the war competition with industry seriously
affected police recruiting, and from 1917 until after the completion of
demobilization the scarcity of apphcants made it difficult to keep up the
authorized strength of the department. As a result, considerable modi-
fication of the standards governing entrance requirements was necessary.
By 1921, however, conditions were normal in respect to the number of
persons making appHcation for police appointment.
Previous Occupation
A review of the occupational sources from which poUcemen are re-
cruited shows that they are drawn from a wade range of civil employ-
» City Charter, Sec. 103.
[22 1
merits. Considering the occupations of the 56 men appointed during
1914, it is found that, of the occupations engaged in prior to entering the
poHce department, only six had furnished more than one representative.
Machinists numbered six, carpenters three, shipping clerks, ship-builders,
foremen (not further specified), railroad firemen, and street-car in-
spectors numbered two each. The remaining 37 came from as many
occupations.^ An analysis of the previous occupations of the first 133
men appointed in 1921 shows that there were 14 occupations from which
more than one recruit was drawn, accounting for 87 men altogether. Of
these, 19 Avere machinists and machinists' helpers, 12 truck drivers, 10
chauffeurs, eight electricians and electrical workers, six carpenters, six
from the plumbing trades, five clerks, etc. Forty-seven other occupa-
tions were Hsted, including a physical director, tree surgeon, barber,
chef, sailor, musician, farmer, draftsman, chocolate maker, etc. Those
who might be classified generally as manual workers numbered 111, or
83 per cent., and the miscellaneous non-manual occupations accounted
for 22 appointees, or 17 per cent.
The previous experience of new policemen is, therefore, diversified,
and offers almost no common factors which may be utihzed in planning
their training. With many of these men the choice of work is largely a
hit-or-miss matter. Most of them finally settle upon policing mthout
giving much thought to its significance or to its possibilities as a career.
They think of it as a job giving steady employment and compensation
equal to or better than what they were able to obtain in commercial
fields.
This raw material, possessing every sort of occupational experience,
must be molded into as great a degree of uniformity as possible. The
recruits must first be converted into patrolmen as a sort of common
denominator. When this has been done, the same men must be recon-
verted into detectives and special investigators, such as those attached
to the vice squad. Some must give special attention to work with ju-
veniles, and in the absence of women police, others are required to do
work which should naturally fall to a division of women police.
The large proportion of men who are drawn from the various types of
^ The 37 occupations were as follows: assembler, ball-bearing inspector, box-
maker, brass finisher, brazing shifts, bricklayer, clerk, chauffeur, conductor (street-
car), driver, electric crane operator, engineer, foundryman, gateman, glazier, hotel
clerk, houseman, inspector (street), inspector (factory), iron-worker, laborer, meter-
reader, mill worker, molder, mover, patternmaker, plate worker, presser, salesman,
shoe clerk, stone assembler, trainman, tug fireman, tug despatcher, wire weaver,
woodworker.
manual work is due to economic considerations and is not ascribable to
any relation between police work and the manual occupations. While
the physical demands of patroling are considerable, the work does not in
any sense involve skill or adaptability in the use of the hands. Physical
prowess is required as a sort of incidental qualification, but mental
alertness is the primary quaUfication. The routine manual occupations
count for little as a basis of experience in making observations and exer-
cisinp; judj2;ment in taking police action. Thus, men who have been
trained to know how to do things are brought over into a new field, utterly
foreign to their experience, where they are concerned with what to do.
Of course, the mere fact that a man has been a manual worker, often
by force of accidental circumstance, does not mean that he cannot be
the sort of brain worker that a policeman must be. Manual work need
not be held to disqualify him. On the other hand, it in no way qualifies
him for the more important phases of a poUceman's task. The significant
fact in Cleveland is that by far the largest percentage of its policemen are
recruited from occupations whose character is as far removed from the
character of police work as can be. Consequently there are bound to be
many misfits, many instances of poUcemen whose total lack of qualifica-
tions for their work is altogether too obvious.
Age of Appointees
The ages at which men enter Cleveland's police service is also worthy
of our consideration. According to present civil service regulations, 21 is
the minimum and 35 the maximum age at which men may be eligible
for appointment to the pohce force. Of the 56 men appointed iji 1914,
only one was aged below 25 and 55 were twenty-five years of age or
over. Out of the 186 men appointed in 1920, there were 73, or 39 per
cent., aged below twenty-five, and 113, or 61 per cent., twenty-five or
over. Similarly in 1921, of the first 134 men appointed, 55, or 41 per
cent., were aged below twenty-five and the remaining 59 per cent, were
twenty-five or over.^ Considering the more recent appointments, it is
found that approximately one-fourth of the 1920 appointees were thirty
years of age and over. Somewhat more than one-fourth of the first
group of 1921 appointees were thirty or over. We beheve that the
maximum age for appointment to the patrol force should not exceed
thirty years, and that a special effort should be made to recruit, as far as
possible, men between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-five. It is said
that men over twenty-five possess the advantage of maturity in their
• The age of one appointee was not given: these figures and percentage calcula-
tions are for 133 men.
[24]
fund of knowledge and that they are, on the whole, more reliable than
"boys" between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-five. If the sound-
ness of this position were to be fully admitted, it would be logical to con-
clude that the considerable number of men who have entered the depart-
ment at an age below twenty-five have not been competent to do credita-
ble police work. But this is not the fact. Indeed, it is only in a few
isolated cases that criticisms of individual acts are laid to the youthful-
ness of policemen, and even then the criticism is made for want of a
better reason.
Individual cases of failure to take proper police action are found to be
due not so much to lack of maturity as to lack of experience in handling
similar situations or faulty temperament. It is experience in the exercise
of judgments required of policemen in the daily round that counts for
most, and not the general maturity attaching to age. Nor is tempera-
ment a quality to be measured by age. True, the young man under
twenty-five may become excited and lack self-composure in trying situa-
tions, and when such is the case, the criticism of incompetence is merited.
The same may be true, however, of the man who is thirty. Higher police
officials, whenever consulted on this point, agree that a man of twenty-
five who has four years of actual police experience to his credit is almost
invariably a better agent than the recruit of thirty or thirty-five who has
had fewer years of experience.
On the other hand, there are distinct advantages to be had in recruit-
ing the younger men to the service. In the first place, younger men are
more readily trained and molded in response to the desires of the officers
who direct them. Inspector Cahalane, who was, for a long time, in charge
of the New York Police Training School, said: "Give me the boys in
preference to the older men and I can more easily make policemen of
them." In training men for the mounted service in New York, it has
been found that the best results are achieved with men who have never
ridden a horse. " They don't have to unlearn how to ride," said an officer
in charge of the mounted squad. Men who know how to ride are accus-
tomed to using the horse for the purpose of covering ground rapidly.
Most mounted police work, however, is done with the horse in a walk or
standing, and requires a different style of riding altogether. So it is with
other types of police work. The fewer preconceived notions the police
recruit has developed, the easier it is to train him in the peculiar require-
ments of police work generally. Mature men do not lend themselves to
instruction and molding as readily as do the younger men, whose minds
are more open and whose habits are less fixed.
It must be noted that the men who begin patrol work at an early age
[25]
have much the best chance of maintaining physical fitness until the end
of twenty or twenty-five years of continuous service. Over 80 per cent,
of the men of any police force continue in actual field work without pro-
motion. Entering as patrolmen, they remain as patrolmen to the end.
The man who enters the force at the age of twenty-one may be expected
to measure up to the rigorous demands of his work until he has reached
the age of forty-six, whereas allowances will likely be required for the
man who begins at thirty or thirty-five and continues to the age of fifty-
five or sixty. If for no other reason than to protect the city's investment
in pension moneys allowed upon disability, there should be an effort to
recruit the younger men in preference to the older ones. Field service in
all hours and in all kinds of weather will much sooner bring disability to
the man of fifty-five than to the man of forty-five.
The point that younger men are needed in the police department is
strongly enforced by the experience of European cities. In London the
minimum age for appointment to the force is twenty and the maximum
twenty-seven. In Liverpool the minimum age is twenty-one and the
maximum twenty-five. In Glasgow the maximum age is twenty-five, and
in Manchester the maximum is twenty-eight. Paris has a maximum age
of thirty, the higher limit being due to compulsory army service, which,
under the old dispensation, took two years out of the young man's life.
Turnover in the Patrol Force
A further analysis of the histories of the men appointed during the
years which we have been reviewing shows that the number of resigna-
tions during the first few years following appointment is excessive.' Table
1 shows the record of voluntary separations from the service of men ap-
pointed in the given years.
The figures do not include the total number of separations. During
this six-year period there were other resignations of men appointed in
years prior to 1914 not included in the above calculation. These have
not been included, as we are concerned only with showing the actual
proportion of resignations for any one year's appointments. There are
a few men dismissed from the department by order of the director of
public safety who must be added to the voluntary resignations. The
combined record of appointments, resignations, and dismissals for these
years is given in Table 2.
This is a high turnover of personnel for a service supposed to be pro-
fessional in character, one that is made attractive by reason of its guaran-
tee against periods of unemployment and by offering retirement on
pension after twenty-five years of continuous service. Notwithstanding
[26]
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27]
these factors making for permanency of tenure, it is found that of the men
appointed in 1914, 1916, and 1918, no less than one in three appointed
in any one year had left the department by the beginning of 1921. Of
the 1916 appointees, three out of every five resigned or were dismissed by
1921. Of the 1920 appointees, almost one-fourth of the number left the ser-
lice for one cause or another within the first year of their appointment !
What are the causes of the large turnover of police personnel? In the
first place, there may be cited the failure of a portion of the men to
measure up to the demands of police work, resulting in dismissal or the
initiation of disciplinary action leading to voluntary resignation. Ap-
proximately one-sixth of the 1916 group left the service for these reasons.
The same was true of nearly one-fourth of the 1914 and 1918 groups, and
slightly less than one-third of the 1919 and 1920 appointees. Again,
rates of pay given to policemen during the years under review have not
been sufficient to hold the men in the department. By 1920 it is true
that the increase in salary brought police pay into line with salaries paid
in many commercial employments. Whatever the rates of psiy, it is safe
to say that the salary schedules of the Cleveland force have never been
determined on the basis of their adequacy to hold the men in content-
ment once they were drawn into the department. Moreover, salary
schedules have been devised with the view to getting a given quota of
men and not to getting men having personal qualifications particularly
useful in police work.
A less tangible reason for the impermanency of tenure is that no ade-
quate consideration of the nature of police work is given by the individual
before entering upon it. As has been pointed out before, police employ-
ment is more often than not considered merely as a job to satisfy imme-
diate needs. The resignations show that many recruits do not approach
police work with any serious notion of beginning at the bottom round of
a distinctive profession and developing a life career.
The police department is burdened, therefore, with a good proportion
of men out of each group appointed, who are soon going to be discon-
tented or who have no serious intention of performing creditable work as
a basis for a career as policemen. The fault cannot properly be laid at
the door of the men who apply for appointment. It is the business of the
municipahty, as the employer, to make its selections with thoroughgoing
care rather than to pass out jobs to a given number of men who happen
to want the job at the time and who have certain simple qualifications
of physique and education. Yet there is no conscious effort on the part
either of the civil service commission — which is primarily responsible —
or of police officials to influence recruiting in this direction.
[28]
In this connection the practice in the London police department can
well serve as a model. The utmost care is exercised by the London
authorities in the selection of police recruits. Recruiting agents are con-
stantly traveling from place to place in the country districts of England,
and even in Scotland and Wales, looking for available men for the Lon-
don force. They go about their business in workmanlike fashion, utiliz-
ing newspaper advertisements, and even bill-posters, and the greatest
care is taken to weed out not only the unfit, from a physical and mental
standpoint, but those who, in the judgment of the recruiting agents, give
the impression that they are not looking upon the police service as a per-
manent profession.
In Cleveland, advertising for police recruits is of the most meager
sort, consisting merely in a formal announcement in the papers that a
competitive examination for entrance to the police department will be
held on a date specified. For a while during the war some effort was
made to use motion picture films to stimulate possible apphcants, but this
has been abandoned for the simple reason that there is now a sufficient
number of applicants. The newspaper advertisement marks the end of
the city's effort to attract men to the police service. Thereafter it is
only a matter of measuring the men who present themselves. Whoever
meets the requirements of residence, height, minimum and maximum
weight and chest measurements, is entitled to continue in the examina-
tions. These consist of a medical and physical examination as a qualify-
ing test, and an educational examination, which is given to those who
successfully pass the physical tests. The subjects of the examination,
with the weights attaching to each one, are as follows: writing 1, spelling
1, arithmetic 1, practical questions 2, oral examination 1, muscular
strength 1, military or naval experience in recent war and honorable dis-
charge L Applicants making a final average rate of 70 per cent, or over
are placed on a list of those eligible for appointment.
The examinations involve minimum standards. The tests really de-
termine how far above the passable minimum standards the applicants
stand and are not adjusted to measure the full capacity of the more
capable applicants. Another evidence of the fact that the examinations
are designed to accommodate minimum or qualifying standards rather
than to measure maximum capacities is shown by the practice of giving
the same kind of examination — not the same questions, however — re-
gardless of whether there are 50 applicants or 1,000. Types of examina-
tion are not adjusted to changes in the supply of men nor is there any
modification made in response to the need for selecting special types of
men in the light of the department's requirements. Indeed, there is no
[29]
conversation between the officers of the civil service commission and of
the poUce department on such matters.
As a result of the examinations applicants are divided roughly into
two groups, the hopelessly unfit, who are promptly thrown out, and those
who have made marks better than the minimum requirement. The
latter are all retained on the eligible list, with certain technical limita-
tions. The commission does not erect a scaling-wall which is heightened
when applicants are many and which is made sufficiently difficult of
scaling to measure the capacities of the superior competitors.
Finally, there is no effort, by either the civil service commission or
the police department, to convey to prospective applicants any adequate
notion of the prospects, demands, and possibiUties of poUce service as a
career. The men are taken as they come. If suitable men are not at-
tracted, it is held to be regretable. Standards of police work are then
fashioned to fit the capacities of the men certified to the department by
the civil service commission. There is never any attempt to set the
standards in accordance with the actual demands of constructive and
improved methods of policing, through special efforts to get the kind of
men who measure up to these standards.
While the police department exercises no initiative in going after the
men it wants, it does have some opportunity of looking into such per-
sonal qualifications of the applicants as are not shown in the civil service
examination. Under the present arrangement the civil service com-
mission requires the police department to make a report on a character
investigation of each applicant who has successfully passed the examina-
tions. This investigation is conducted by the commanding officers of the
precincts in which the applicants have their residence, and is a more
complete investigation than is conducted in most cities. This is the
police department's sole opportunity, although in a limited and purely
negative way, to set its own standards.
With the civil service list established, the appointing authority has
an opportunity to exercise some choice in making selections, under the
provision of the law which permits him to choose one out of three who are
certified by the civil service commission as eligible. This privilege is
generally waived, and the policy is followed of appointing in one, two,
three order from the list. However, the wisdom of this discretion allowed
the appointing authority has been abundantly justified in other cities,
and as long as recruits to the department continue to come through the
channel of the civil service commission, the provision should be main-
tained.
30
Civil Service as a Source of Recruits
As has been pointed out above, we are by no means satisfied with the
way in which the civil service commission has discharged its obligations
toward the police department. In spite of the fact that many of the
commission's activities are prescribed by law in detailed fashion, its
work has been too inelastic and stereotyped to obtain the best results.
As a consequence, the department contains far too many men who are
lacking in important qualifications necessary to a good policeman. It
has been discouraging to examine the reports which the men are required
to render in the course of their daily operations. Many of these reports
show an utter lack of the ordinary intelligence demanded in making an
observation the record of which becomes an official public document. A
single illustrative example will suffice:
Nov. 16, 1920.
"First Precinct,
Lieut. Huge.
"About 11:15 Sergt. Harwood went to the rear of the building & very
shortly after that he came to the front again & that, that time a yong lady
coming east was entering the building and I stoped her asking the questions as I
was instructed to, this yong lady refused to give her name & the Sergt. interfered
& said to this young lady to give me her name in which she did & about 11:30
or 11:40 a man coming west made an atempt to enter the hotel & this was
Mr. , we three stood there up till the time he left was about 12 : 05 a.m. & in
the meantime about 11:50 another man came while the three of us were talking,
this man I dont know his name & came there with a machine to my knowledge,
& all of this time when Mr. came, up till the time he left the sergt was still
in the front of the House, this is far as I can remember & about 12:15 or
12:20 A.M. I was ordered by Sergt Harwood to go to the rear of the building &
tell the man in the rear to come to the front and that time this third man was still
there.
"Respectfully,
"Patrolman."
However, we believe that as far as appointments to the force are con-
cerned, the civil service commission can probably be more wisely em-
ployed than the police department itself. Generally speaking, civil ser-
vice commissions, not only in Cleveland, but elsewhere, have done a
great deal to raise the standards of eligibility in poUce appointments and
to eliminate the unfit. Moreover, they relieve the police administrator
of a vast burden of detail. The latter's whole concern is to secure raw
recruits who can be turned into honest and intelligent policemen, and
[311
any plan or machinery which will produce this material upon demand
adds to the effectiveness of his administration. Arthur Woods, former
police commissioner of New York, who cannot be charged with being
overfriendly to civil service, defines its application to the problem of
pohce appointments as follows: "It is undoubtedly about as good a
method as any other for picking out quahfied candidates, for the men
come from all walks of hfe, and seemingly from every profession, trade,
and job there is. No comparative record could be obtained, nor could
the judgment of employers fairly be used to distinguish between one
man and another, since there might be a thousand different employers
for a thousand applicants, and as many varying standards as employers."
If, therefore, civil service could be looked upon as machinery for
furnishing raw material, and if the police executive had the unchallenged
right to reject, after probation, any candidates who proved unsatis-
factory, there would be httle in this phase of activity which could inter-
fere with the principle of responsible leadership. Cleveland's civil service
system needs a thorough overhauling and a keener appreciation of the
tasks and responsibiHties of the pohce department for which it selects
recruits.
Police Til\ining School
The department is to be commended for its full-time training course
of eight weeks for recniits. A lieutenant of poUce, enthusiastic and am-
bitious for its successful promotion, is in immediate charge. One reason
for the school's firmly estabUshed position is to be found in Chief Smith's
healthy interest in its welfare. To him is due the credit for its original
establishment a few years ago — a noteworthy achievement in the depart-
ment's history.
Considering the resources that are available, the school for recruits
is well conducted. There is need for better equipment, especially for
physical training and for a larger staff of instructors. There is room, too,
for considerable development or rather evolution of the school. In the
first place, it should be more than a school for recruits. Indeed, it should
be the department's university, providing instruction for veterans and
officers, and such specialists as detectives and men of the mounted ser-
vice. The idea should be to have a school in which all ranks should con-
stantly be "freshening up" — to use Colonel Woods' expression — in
pohce technique. The purpose of such courses should be to keep the officers
from becoming "rusty," lest the recruits fresh from school be better
versed in special subjects than their superiors. From time to time lec-
tures might be given to members of various ranks by criminologists,
[32]
lawyers, identification experts, and other specialists in fields related to
police work. Such special phases of police activity as discipline, prep-
aration of records, and the giving of bail might also be discussed in
occasional courses. To this plan was due the splendid efficiency of the
New York force under Commissioner Woods, and its wide adoption in
such cities as London and Liverpool proves its worth.
We suggest, too, that the school be developed in such a way as to
become the staff agency of the department, serving as a personnel service
division. The school is primarily engaged in converting into poUcemen
the raw material furnished by civil service lists. What better agency
is there for passing efficiently on the quality and adaptability of this raw
material? If the personality tests, such as were recommended by the
chief in his last annual report, are to be conducted, or psj'chological tests
of one sort or another are to be held, the training school is the proper
agency for conducting them.
In other words, the school should be constantly engaged in studying
the problems relating to personnel. When the classes are not in session,
specialists attached to the school might devote their time to working out
efficiency record systems and doing other research work in connection
with tests and instructions. Industrial concerns recognize the value of
the investment in personnel service departments. The police depart-
ment of Cleveland has a large enough force to justify an investment in
the same sort of work.
33
CHAPTER V
PROMOTION
The System of Promotion
THE selection of recruits is but the first step in the provision of
police personnel. Filling the quotas of special divisions in the de-
partment and filling the higher posts through promotion are the
next steps. Regular assignment to the detective bureau is generally-
considered as a promotion by reason of the increased compensation al-
lowed, but it is not technically a promotion since detectives are only
detailed to the detective bureau and the men so detailed continue in the
rank held at the time of their assignment.
Promotions are governed entirely by the rules and regulations of the
civil service commission. These regulations provide that all promotions
in the uniformed force of the police department — excluding only civilian
employees — "shall be from class to class, from the lowest class to the
highest," within the force. Thus, promotion to any given rank in the
department is restricted to the membership of the next lower rank, and
it is, therefore, impossible to fill any post above the rank of patrolman
by making appointments from outside the department.
All promotions are made as a result of competitive examinations con-
ducted by the civil service commission. Eligible lists are furnished by the
commission, and the director of public safety is obliged to make promo-
tions from this list. Examinations given to applicants for promotion
include the following subjects: "Writing, spelling, arithmetic, practical
questions, as in the judgment of the commission pertain to the office to
which said applicant seeks promotion; State laws and city ordinances
pertaining to the duties of said office; rules and regulations of the depart-
ment; seniority and record in the service of the applicant, and such
other subjects or tests as the commission may prescribe."^
A patrolman is not eligible to promotion to the rank of sergeant until
after he has served three years as a patrolman. Sergeants and lieu-
^ Rule XVII, Sec. 5, of the Rules and Regulations of the Civil Service Commis-
sion of the city of Cleveland.
[34]
tenants must have served two years in their respective ranks before they
are eligible for promotion to the next higher rank. A patrolman who has
served as many as five years in the department is entitled to a marking of
100 per cent, on seniority as one of the subjects of the promotional
examination. If a patrolman has served as many as three years, but less
than five, his marking in seniority is reduced 10 per cent, for each year
less than five. In a similar way sergeants who are examined for pro-
motion to the rank of lieutenant are entitled to a marking of 100 per
cent, on seniority after the completion of seven years' service in the de-
partment, two years of which must have been served in the rank of
sergeant, and a reduction of 10 per cent, in the seniority marking is
made for each year less than the seven served in the department. Appli-
cants for promotion to captaincy must have served ten years in the
department to obtain a marking of 100 per cent, on seniority, and 10 per
cent, is deducted for each year less than ten years served.
The ''record" of an applicant for promotion, another factor counted
in promotional examinations, is determined solely upon the basis of the
applicant's disciplinary record in the department. Thus, if the record
shows that the applicant has not been charged with a violation of the
rules and regulations of the department within a period of five years
immediately preceding the date of application for promotion, he is en-
titled to a marking of 100 per cent, on record. The regulations further
provide that if the applicant "shall have been within such five years
under charges for and found guilty of any offense specified in articles
1 to 12 inclusive, of Rule XIII, of the rules of the department,^ he shall
have charged against him 20 per cent, (meaning 20 per cent, deduction
from the record rating of 100 per cent.) for each of such charges; and for
1 Articles 1 to 12 inclusive, which are deemed specific cause for suspension from
the department under charges, are as follows:
Art. 1. For intoxication while on duty or while in uniform.
Art. 2. For being a user of intoxicating liquor to excess.
Art. 3. For being engaged directly or indirectly as a vendor of intoxicating
liquors.
Art. 4. For wilful disobedience of any order lawfully issued to him by a
superior officer in the department.
Art. 5. For incompetency to perform the duties of his office.
Art. 6. For conviction of any crime or misdemeanor against the laws of the
United States or the laws of the State of Ohio or for conviction of any violation of a
lawful ordinance of the city of Cleveland.
Art. 7. For making known any proposed movement of the department to any
person not a member of this department.
Art. 8. For unnecessary and unwarranted violence to a prisoner.
[35]
conviction of any offense specified in articles 13 to 21 inclusive^ of said
rule XIII, he shall have charged against him ten (10) per cent, for each
of such charges." ^
Limitations and Defects of the System
The practice of giving some credit for seniority is to be commended,
and the markings for senioritj^ ratings are reasonably scheduled. That
portion of the examination which embraces the calculation of an appli-
cant's "record" is a disguised attempt to permit the applicant's work
and experience to have some weight in an examination looking to pro-
motion. As a matter of fact, it is nothing more than a penalty schedule —
wholly negative in character. It is nothing short of absurd to imply
that the present civil service examination for promotion in the police
service gives any credit for meritorious work performed by members of
the department who are being examined.
A mere absence of disciplinary charges indicates nothing as to the
character of work done by the applicant for promotion, nor, indeed,
whether much of any sort of work was done. Under the present scheme
of record rating the mediocre man, if he avoid an open breach of the
rules, as most of them can do without great effort, is placed on an equal
footing, as far as record goes, with the energetic, able, and efficient officer
who has also kept out of trouble. No attempt is made to give credit in a
Art. 9. For cowardice or lack of energy of such character as to amount either
to incompetency or to gross neglect of duty.
Art. 10. For sleeping while on duty.
Art. 11. For wilfully or continually violating any of the rules or regulations of
the department.
Art. 12. For habitually contracting debts which he is unable or unwilling to
pay or for refusing or without reasonable excuse to discharge his lawful obligations.
1 Articles 13 to 21 inclusive of Rule XIII are also specific causes for suspension.
They are as follows:
Art. 13. For intoxication while not on active duty.
Art. 14. For indecent, profane, or harsh language while on duty or in unifonn.
Art. 15. For disrespect shown to a superior officer in the department.
Art. 16. For any neglect of duty.
Art. 17. For absence without leave.
Art. IS. For gossiping about the affairs of the department.
Art. 19. For conduct unbecoming an officer, patrolman, or a gentleman.
Art. 20. For conduct subversive to the good order and discipline of the de-
partment.
.Art. 21. For neglecting to report his change of residence to the officer in charge
of his precinct.
* From rules and regulations of the civil ser\'ice commission.
136]
positive way for valuable work performed. Instead of allowing the mere
absence of wrongdoing the highest mark that is given for police "record,"
a clean disciplinary record should be rated as a normal median. Failure
to measure up to the least that is expected of every member of the depart-
ment— compliance with the rules — should apply as a subtraction in the
shape of demerits from the median rating. But demerits should be only
a part of a man's record. Provision should be made for showing the
converse side of the record by taking into account the opposite of neg-
lectfulness, disobedience, and the performance of improper police action.
In other words, credit for meritorious work should be given in the form
of an addition to the normal median rating. It is only in this way that
a premium can be placed on accomplishing more than the avoidance of
wrongdoing.
Considering the promotional examination as a whole, we believed it
is not well adapted for the wise selection of men possessing qualities
fitting them for the tasks which promotion imposes upon them; that,
as far as the mere attainment of promotion is concerned, no adequate
reward, hence no adequate stimulus, is given for the accomplishment of
superior police work ; that opportunities for preparation and for obtain-
ing high marks in the examination are unequal; that an examination for
a rank where no knowledge is given the applicant of what specific duty
he may be assigned to perform — whether patrol, traffic, detective, or
crime prevention duty — is an unsound practice; and finally that re-
sponsibility for the appraisal of the personnel assets of the department
and utilization of those assets through promotion are too far removed
from the official who is responsible for directing the men.
The present scheme of having an independent body apply the tests
which determine eligibility for promotion was devised primarily as a pro-
tection against a possible display of favoritism in making promotions.
The plan has met with success in so far as it has minimized political,
social, and religious influences as factors in determining promotion. This,
however, is a purely negative achievement. On the positive side there is
little if anything to show that there is an advantage to be gained in turn-
ing over the matter of promotions to an outside body. The written
examination and the seniority and disciplinary record fall short in meas-
uring the qualifications most needed in superior officers, for example,
integrity, executive ability, and a natural disposition to assume the
initiative. These qualities are all important to men filUng the higher
posts in a police department, yet they are not reckoned with in the pro-
motional examinations conducted by the civil service commission. In-
stead, facility in arithmetic and spelling and abiHty to answer certain
[37]
commonplace practical questions are the measurements applied. The
examination at present tests what an applicant knows. What he can
do, what he has the spirit to do, and what he has done are significant
considerations which are altogether neglected.
Judgment of fitness for promotion in work where initiative and zeal
play so large a part must take into account the experience basis for
determining differences between the hard workers and the lazy, between
the thorough ones and the hasty or careless, between the backward-
pulling, disgruntled dispositions and the enthusiastic, forward-looking
men. Any method of selection which omits this test is inadequate and
hence unfair to the men involved, and inimicable to the welfare of the
department.
It is possible to cram for an examination, which is certain to be much
like the examinations previously held for promotion to the same rank,
and the applicants devote much time and thought in preparing for it.
In this connection it is to be observed that the lieutenant, for example,
who has an assignment in a quiet precinct or at some post which allows
him considerable leisure, has the important advantage of time at his
disposal during which he may prepare for an examination. In this way
he may easily secure an advantage over a lieutenant who is energetically
carrying on his work in a busy precinct and continuing it to such hours
that he has neither energy nor time left for productive study. The
latter man is building up an experience in the practical operation of the
day's routine, but it stands him in no stead when he is called to compete
in a promotional examination.
Under the civil service arrangement examinations for a giVen rank
are held in advance of the actual need for making a promotion. The
grades and standings on the eligible list for promotion to, and including
the rank of captain of police, established as a result of the examination
markings, remain in force for two years, although, after it has stood for
one year, the commission has the right to abolish the list and hold another
examination. Accordingly, the practical questions section of the exami-
nation must relate in a very general way to the requirements of the rank
involved, for it is not known in what branch of the service the applicant
will be emplo3'ed. There is no opportunity, therefore, to weigh the
specific needs of a given post of duty and pick a man then and there to
fill it. This prevents the promotion of men within a single branch of
specialized work, as in the vice bureau, detective bureau, or trafl&c squad.
If, for example, it were determined that an additional captain of detec-
tives was needed, the place would have to be filled either by transferring
some captain from another branch of the service or by taking a man from
[38]
the list of lieutenants eligible for promotion to the rank of captain. If a
lieutenant of detectives does not happen to be in one, two, or three order
on the list, then there is no opportunity to promote a man with detective
experience. Most of the captains recently assigned to commands in the
detective bureau have been taken directly from commands of the uni-
formed patrol service. Some had never had any detective experience.
The same would be true in making a promotion in any other branch of
specialized work.
Perhaps the most serious objection to the present methods of making
promotions is that the choosing of men to fill the higher posts is so far
removed from the directing head of police operations. An independent
body determines who the subordinate leaders of police business shall be
after tests which, as has been shown, do not consider the more important
personal attributes with which only the police administrators alone can
be acquainted. Actual choice, with a range of one out of three eligibles,
is left to the director of public safety. The chief of police, acting as the
administrative head of the department, has nothing to say about it ex-
cept in cases where there is such happy accord between the director and
chief that the director may ask the chief for his recommendations of
choice. The net result is that there is no one exercising the practical
police point of view in looking out for evidences of ability in individuals
who indicate fitness for promotion to particular posts of duty. Where
the administrative head has no concern about naming the men who shall
be promoted, he will spend no time in making appraisals. He will simply
take the men who are given him by the civil service commission and do
the best he can.
This situation relieves the head of the department of what should be
one of the most important of his tasks, if not the most important, namely,
the intimate supervision of the work of his subordinates with a view to
developing the maximum use of whatever special abilities may be dis-
covered in them.
Stephen O'Meara, who for many years served creditably as police
commissioner of Boston, defined the situation as follows: "No written
examination can possibly disclose the qualities and habits which are of
vital importance in a police officer of rank and can be known only to his
superiors. Among them are judgment, coolness, moral as well as physical
courage, executive ability, capacity for the command of men, sobriety,
and other moral qualities, standing among his associates and in the com-
munity, powers of initiative, temper, integrity, energy, courtesy."^
* From a private memorandum.
[39]
Theodore Roosevelt, in his Autobiography, expressed himself in similar
vein. "I absolutely split off from the bulk of my professional civil ser-
vice reform friends when they advocated written competitive examina-
tions for promotion. In the police department I found these examina-
tions a serious handicap in the way of getting the best men promoted,
and never in any office did I find that the written competitive promotion
examination did any good. The reason for a written competitive en-
trance examination is that it is impossible for the head of the office, or
the candidate's prospective immediate superior, himself to know the
average candidate or to test his ability. But when once in office, the
best way to test any man's ability is by long experience in seeing him
actually at work. His promotion should depend upon the judgment
formed of him by his superiors."'
Recommendations
It is recommended, therefore, that the matter of promotions be put
squarely up to the director of police. He should be enabled to make use
of the civil service commission as a staff or agency equipped to make cer-
tain limited measurements. But he should be allowed to place his own
valuations on the tests made by the commission and make any other
tests he may see fit in order to arrive at his decisions regarding promo-
tions. Under such an arrangement the civil service commission might
be asked to conduct examinations which would really amount to qualify-
ing examinations based on certain minimum qualification standards.
The police head could then add to these results the estimates of a can-
didate's worth, based on lines not covered by the civil service ejfamina-
tion.
It is further recommended that there be established a board, to be
known as a board of promotion, consisting of three to five members of
the higher ranks in the department. It should be the duty of this board
to make recommendations for promotion to the director of police after
thorough investigation and examination or series of examinations as may
seem necessary. The members of this board should be designated by the
administrative head of the department to serve in such capacity at his
pleasure. We do not wish to recommend in too specific detail what the
composition of this board should be. If the principle be estabUshed,
there may be many modifications in a scheme designed to carry it out.
It is suggested, however, that in addition to the chief line officer of the
uniformed force the head of the police training school, as the depart-
^ Autobiography, p. 161.
140]
merit's specialist in matters of personnel, be included in the membership
of the board. Of course, it would be necessary to have the board com-
posed only of members having a rank always equal to and generally
higher than the rank to which promotion is to be considered. In the
case of promotions in the detective service, the chief of detectives and
possibly another detective officer should be included in the board's mem-
bership. For promotions to posts in the patrol service, officers of the
uniformed force should be substituted for the detective officers. Similar
substitutions should be made in designating the board's membership
when considering promotion to other special branches of the service.
Preliminary to the examination made by the board of promotion,
commanding officers of the various units in the department should be
required to submit names of such members of their commands as are
deemed worthy of consideration for promotion. These recommendations,
together with such efficiency records of the candidates as may be avail-
able, should be reviewed by the board of promotions. Provision should
be made for allowing any member of an eligible rank who may not be
endorsed by his commanding officer to make application to the board to
have his name considered for promotion. The board could establish
weights for seniority and prepare a schedule of merits and demerits to
apply in making its recommendations. There are no measurements now
used by the civil service which could not be used by a board of promo-
tion, but the board of promotion can employ measurements that arc not
and cannot be employed by an outside civil service commission.
Recommendations for promotion should be delivered by the board to
the administrative head of the department, who should have unre-
stricted authority to accept or reject the board's recommendations.
We submit that the establishment of a board of promotion, composed
of members of the professional force, whose duty it is to pass judgment
on the quality of men as policemen and the quality of their work, will
accomplish four highly desirable results : First, such a scheme would in-
troduce expert appraisal of fitness for work with which the appraisers
are themselves thoroughly familiar. Secondly, it would tend to stimulate
a feeling of self-reliance in the police personnel and imbue the higher
officers with a heightened sense of responsibility for promoting the best
interest of their profession. Thirdly, it would be the first step in the
direction of setting up machinery which would almost certainly evolve
standards and means of measuring the efficiency of policemen. When all
members of the force realize that what they do, as observed by their
superiors who are competent to judge, alone counts for advancement,
there will be a new tone in the whole department. Fourthly, a board of
[41]
promotion would eliminate favoritism in making choices for promotion
perhaps more thoroughly than does the civil service commission. Police-
men will be the first to welcome an escape from outside interference.
They do not need barriers to keep them from rushing to influences which
they know have always worked for demoralization and the disrepute of
their activity. They have in the past affected ahgnments with outside
political interests only because those interests had connections with
elected officers who determined appointments, promotions, and assign-
ments to favored posts. But once the whole job of policing is left to the
personnel responsible for it, — including, of course, a civihan administra-
tive head, — without the introduction of outside connections that make
for interference, the professional force will show that it has a natural
pride in its work, that it desires a good name and an efficient department,
more, indeed, than other persons whose standing and interests do not
rise and fall with the standing of the police department.
Lest it be thought that this recommendation for a board of promo-
tion is of too radical a character, attention is called to the fact that this
same system is now and has been for many years in operation in Boston
and other American cities, where it has worked with unqualified success.
Similarly in London the non-competitive system of promotions is the
method in vogue. There the civil service commission enters the situa-
tion only upon the invitation of the police commissioner, to assist the
department in weeding out men whose lack of education makes them
unfit for promotion, and the examination which it gives is merely to test
the general educational capacity of the applicant. A second examination
in the elements of police dutj% both oral and written, is given by a' board
of police officials, and those who emerge from these two tests are eligible
to promotion, although the commissioner, of course, makes his own
choices from the list.
Some such system as this is necessarj-^ if our police departments are to
be saved from hfelessness and dry rot. With promotions the result of
real excellence in police work under the watchful eye of superiors, much
of the present inertia would disappear.
42]
CHAPTER VI
DISCIPLINE
THE term discipline as here used includes both its narrower and
broader meanings. Discipline in its narrow sense relates only to
punishment administered for some violation of the rules and regu-
lations or dereliction of duty. This punishment may take the form of a
cancellation of vacation days, suspension without pay, demotion, or
dismissal from the department. In its wider meaning the word disci-
phne embraces the conduct and bearing of members of the force in the
performance of their duty and the manner in which the force responds
to the leadership of the various officers in charge of operations.
In its wider meaning, therefore, the discipline of a poUce force is of
far-reaching significance. The essential basis of all good poUce work is
the character and physical power of the individual men. As Ai'thur
Woods says: "They must be strong of body, stout of soul — sturd3'-,
two-fisted specimens, knowing how to hold themselves in restraint even
under severe provocation, yet prompt and powerful to act with force
and uncompromising vigor when only that will maintain order and pro-
tect the law-abiding." In other words, alertness, keenness, self-re-
straint, and vigor are the essential earmarks of a good police force.
It would be impossible to claim that these characteristics are par-
ticularly noticeable in Cleveland. We have observed a sufficient num-
ber of instances of laxity in police work to warrant the general conclu-
sion that something is radically wrong with the standard of discipline.
No effort was made to spy on the men for the purpose of detecting flaws
in their conduct, but many casual observations were made of the men as
they went about their work on the streets, in station houses, and at
police headquarters. It was not at all uncommon to find two policemen
talking together while on post duty, and carrying on long conservations
with citizens while on post seems to be a habit. Some conversation
with citizens is, of course, necessary, but reference is here made only to
those conversations the manner of which clearly showed that the dis-
cussion was not confined to lines of police duty. These conversations
occurred on posts covering the busiest streets as well as in the more
quiet districts.
On one occasion the traffic cornerman at the intersection of Superior
[431
Avenue, N. E. and the Public Square was off duty from 11 a. m. until some
time after 11.15a.m. A gale was blowing at the time, so that there was some
danger to pedestrians in crossing the street, as automobiles and street
cars were moving without any regulation. During all of this time the
patrolman who was on post at the southwest corner of the post-office
building was engaged in conversation with a citizen, with his back turned
to what really amounted to an emergency situation on the uncovered
traffic post a few feet away. Many patrolmen while on post duty were
observed leaning against posts or buildings as if too tired to stand erect.
The frequency with which needlessly prolonged conversation and other
forms of idling occur reflects discredit on the work of patrol sergeants.
Either the sergeants are not aware of what constitutes alert patrol, or
they are too lenient in their supervision.
On the afternoon of February 21 a building in process of demohtion
at East Sixth Street and Superior Avenue, N. E., collapsed, killing and
injuring several men. A large crowd gathering to view the rescue work
necessitated a considerable detail of policemen to keep the crowd back,
so as to allow firemen to work and to protect the people against the
danger of the unsafe building walls. Crowds were allowed to gather on
the sidewalks across Superior Avenue from the building, and no ade-
quate measures were taken to keep open passageways on the crossing
sidewalks. A patrolman was stationed at the southwest corner of
Sixth and Superior. He was watching the firemen at work about the
wrecked building with the same sort of preoccupation as that manifested
by the crowd blocking the sidewalk. He was not doing as well as the
crowd, in fact, for he was chewing tobacco and violating the law lay ex-
pectorating continually in the street. A sergeant forced his way through
the crowd and instructed this patrolman to clear a passageway. The
patrolman made a grimace, as if in disapproval of having his attention
called to the fact that he was supposed to be policing the crowd. He
started a few citizens moving, but never properly cleared the passageway.
At the same place, on the day following, two other pohcemen, one a
foot patrolman and the other a horse-mounted man, were observed while
they were policing a crowd which had gathered to witness a parade of the
Cleveland Grays. Both men were facing the parade, and as the flag-
bearers' detachment passed the policemen failed to salute the national
emblem, in careless disregard of the instructions covering honors to be
rendered by members of the force when in uniform and on duty.
One more example of slovenly attitude may be cited. A squad of
nine men was observed at the 2.15 p. m. roll call assembly in a precinct
station. While the officer who was holding the roll call read the orders
[44 1
to this outgoing platoon, three of the men who were chewing tobacco
stepped out of their Hne formation in order to expectorate. Another
was seen whispering to the man standing in hne beside him as the
description of persons wanted and alarms giving information of all kinds
was being read by the officer in charge. An attitude of this sort makes a
joke of discipline. It makes the uniform a cheap pretense.
These instances have not been given in any captious spirit. It is
submitted, however, that although these minor derelictions may be small
in themselves, the very frequency of careless, slovenly, and inattentive
actions indicates a general absence of good discipline. The whole force
needs toning up. It needs to be infused with vigor and alertness. The
men should be gotten onto their toes. The department's morale should
be stiffened with the same spirit that Arthur Woods put into the New
York force during his administration. This means discipHne; it means
the strict observance of the letter of the department's regulations; it
means the exaction of a full measure of compliance with police duty.
It brings with it no hardships. On the contrary, it promotes an esprit
de corps that makes for the happiness and self-respect of the entire force.
Record of Formal Disciplinary Actions
An analysis was made of major cases of disciplinary action which
had resulted in suspension from duty on the order of the chief of police
and subsequent trial by the director of public safety. There were 64
members of the force tried during the year 1920. One member was
tried twice during the year and two other members were charged with a
second offense within the year and dismissed from the department,
having signed after the first trial a resignation to be accepted by the
director at his pleasure. Thus, there were 67 offenses subject to the
trial judgment of the director committed by 64 persons during 1920.
In a number of cases more than one charge was preferred against a single
offender. The nature of the charges preferred in the 67 trials is shown
in the following tabulation:
Intoxication and drinking in uniform 23
Intoxicated while on duty 12
Intoxicated while off duty 8
Drinking in uniform while on duty 3
Neglect of duty (allowing prisoner to escape, not using due
diligence, etc., etc.) 9
Off patrol (sleeping, sitting in stores, etc.) 11
Reporting late; failure to ring duty calls, etc. 11
Disobedience 9
Use of indecent language 5
Feigning sickness 3
[45 1
Shooting craps or running crap game 3
Interfering with an officer on duty 2
Miscellaneous 9
Beating horse ; offering to permit the making of whisky in re-
turn for payment of money ; refusing to pay street-car fare
while not in uniform; abusing pool-room keeper, etc.
An examination of the previous record of the 64 men tried in 1920
shows that 25 of them had not been previously charged with offenses.
The remaining 39 had been charged at one time or another with 99
offenses, as shown by the following tabulation:
Drinking and intoxicated 24
Off post 12
Neglect of duty 11
Late to roll call 10
Failure to ring duty calls 6
Indecent and abusive language 6
Disobedience 5
Failure to report to prosecute 4
Feigning sickness 3
Improper performance of duty 2
Miscellaneous 16
The results of the 67 trials held in 1920 w'ere as follows: two members
were reinstated without punishment, being found not guilty; in 38 trials
some form of punishment was administered and the members retained
in the department. Of the remaining 27 trials, 21 resulted in dismissal
from the service of the persons tried, and six members resigned before
the date for trial, while charges were pending against them. The
nature of the punishment imposed in cases other than cases of dismissal
is shown below-
Reprimanded, suspended four days, fined ten daj^s' vacation
and required to sign a resignation to take effect when ac-
cepted by the director 1
Reprimanded, suspended four to thirteen days, fined two to six
days' vacation 2
Reprimanded, suspended four to six days' vacation 2
Suspended four to thirty-five daj's, fined four days' vacation to
all vacation for a period of five months, and required to sign a
resignation to take effect when accepted by the director 10
Suspended three to thirty days, fined one day's vacation to all
vacation for nme weeks 17
Suspended five to forty-five days and demoted 2
Suspended nine to fourteen days 2
Fined three days' vacation to vacation for a period of one month,
and required to sign a resignation 2
Considering the cases involving a charge of intoxication and drinking
in uniform, it is found that out of 23 cases, only four resulted in dis-
[461
missal from the department. One resigned while charges were pending;
eight received a sentence of suspension from duty for a definite period,
fine of days off or vacation, and in addition were required to sign a resig-
nation to be made effective at the pleasure of the director. The re-
maining 11 were suspended and fined days off or vacation. Since some
punishment was levied in all cases, it would appear that proof of the
charges was furnished to the director in each case.
The record for the first five months of 1921 is much like that of 1920.
Intoxication cases from January through May, 1921, numbered 11.
The records show that in a majority of the cases the member accused
was intoxicated or drinking while on active duty. These 11 trials re-
sulted in the dismissal of four members. In the case of one member
whose previous record showed charges of intoxication on several occa-
sions, the penalty was suspension for five days, fine of two days' pay, and
loss of the next four days off duty. In another case charging intoxica-
tion and being off post the punishment was suspension for ten days and
fine of five days' pay. Intoxication is a very serious offense in police
business. A policeman who has possession neither of his wits nor of
his self-control is worse than useless. Indeed, it is nothing less than
shocking for a policeman, with all the wide powers which his office
implies, to be under the influence of liquor. A man who cannot resist
the temptation to become intoxicated while on duty is not fit to wear the
uniform, however insignificant the offense may appear, or however
worthy the man may be for other employment.
The London police force long ago adopted the principle of making
intoxication while on duty the occasion for immediate dismissal. No
excuse is accepted. The same rule could wisely be adopted in Cleveland.
Certainly the penalties imposed in Cleveland for intoxication by the
civil service commission during 1920 were not sufficient to reduce the
rate of offenses in 1921, nor will the punishments imposed in 1921 convey
to the members of the force any adequate appreciation of the seriousness
of their offense.
Appeals
The decision of the director of public safety is not final in the event
that the member tried desires to appeal his case to the civil service com-
mission. No case resulting in a punishment less than dismissal or de-
motion was appealed to the commission during 1920. However, in
something more than half of the cases resulting in dismissal or demotion
such an appeal was taken, and with much success. The civil service
commission affirmed the judgment of the director in seven cases, but
[471
disaffirmed his ruling in six cases. Four patrolmen who had been dis-
missed from the service were reinstated, and two sergeants who had
been demoted to the rank of patrolman were restored to the rank of
sergeant by order of the civil service commission.
A brief resume of the facts pertaining to the cases in which the com-
mission disaffirmed the ruling of the director follows:
1. Patrolman was dismissed after trial on the charge of refusing
to arrest a woman who, he knew, had stolen a ring and of accepting
custody of the ring. This patrolman's previous disciplinary record
disclosed that he had been reported some 15 times — late, several times;
off post, several times; having debts of long standing, slapping a news-
boy, and faiUng in appearance to prosecute. He was reinstated by the
civil service commission with a forfeiture of six weeks' salary. In other
words, the civil ser\nce commission substituted its own judgment for
the judgment of the director of public safety.
2. Patrolman was dismissed after trial on a charge of having
visited a known prostitute in a city hospital and interceding with an
attending doctor on her behalf while in an intoxicated condition. Previ-
ous record shows charges of intoxication and ungentlemanly conduct.
The civil service commission reinstated him in the service without
penalty.
3. Patrolman was dismissed on a charge of refusing to pay his
street-car fare when not in full uniform. Doubtless this charge was
viewed in the light of this patrolman's previous record, which follows:
charged with undue use of blackjack; feigning sickness; twice failed to
report to prosecute; received money for the performance of regular
poUce duty; reporting late; making false report; using abusive lan-
guage. He was reinstated by the civil service commission.
4. Patrolman was dismissed after trial on a charge of failure to
patrol and ring duty calls. His previous record shows: absence from
post; late at roll call; feigning sickness; failed to charge another with
violation of law; intoxicated; off patrol; failure to ring duty calls;
drunk and picking fight; drinking; off patrol. The civil service com-
mission reinstated him.
5. Sergeant was suspended for six weeks and demoted to rank
of patrolman as a result of charges of disobedience, leaving a post before
he should, and failure to prefer charges against a patrolman. Restored
by the civil service commission to rank of sergeant.
6. Sergeant was suspended and demoted to ranlv of patrolman
following charges of neglect of duty and unnecessary conversation with
citizens. Restored by the civil service commission to rank of sergeant.
148]
Incidentally, one of the cases above cited affords striking illustration
of the present chaotic conditions in the police department due to divided
leadership. The chief of police evidently felt that a violation by a
superior officer of the department's rule in regard to the holding of
unnecessary conversation with a citizen gave evidence of such officer's
unfitness to do supervisory work. Accordingly, the chief, in preferring
charges, recommended demotion. There was no disputing the technical
guilt of the officer, and the director ordered demotion in compHance with
the chief's recommendation. However, in deUvering formal notice of
judgment the director completely vitiated his attempt to uphold the
chief when he stated in the letter which was made public that he did not
approve of the judgment which he himself had rendered. The fol-
lowing is an extract from the letter: "While there may be some doubt
as to whether the mere conversing with citizens for this period of time,
when supervising detail policemen, constitutes neglect of duty within
the meaning of the rules and regulations of the police department and
the city charter, I am satisfied that you were indiscreet in your conduct
on this occasion, and I therefore have resolved all doubts against you
in the interest of strict discipline in the police department. My finding
is that you are guilty of violation of Article 16 of Rule 13, as charged.
Such finding is made for disciplinary reasons upon the recommendation
of the chief of poHce, although I believe the punishment is severe for the
offense committed."
It is small wonder that the disciplined member in the case just cited
appealed to the civil service commission and that the commission re-
versed the judgment of the director when he himself believed it too
severe. We have here, therefore, one head of the department deter-
mining that satisfactory standards are not being met and demanding a
penalty; another head interpreting the issue without having standards
of his own; and a third body in no way responsible for administration
overruUng both.
The record of cases appealed to the civil service commission in 1921
is even worse than that for 1920. At the time the survey tabulation
was made, four cases had been appealed to the commission. Three of
these cases involved dismissal from the service and one demotion in
rank. Two of the dismissed members were reinstated, and the officer
demoted was restored to rank by order of the commission. In only
one case out of four was the judgment of the director sustained.
Obviously, the civil service commission must make its decisions
without any thought of the defendant's value as a reliable pohceman.
It must confine its considerations, as would a court of law, to the single
5 [49]
charge at hand. From the police point of view the specific charge
covering an offense may confinn a well-grounded distrust or lack of
confidence in a certain policeman; the last charge may be the final proof
of unfitness. The civil service commission, however, does not assume
the point of view of the police official. Moreover, it brings no responsi-
bility for achieving police results into its deliberations and measures
offenses by standards which are bound to be more lenient than can rea-
sonably be employed in police discipline. It views offenses as mistakes
and transgressions that would not be so grave, perhaps, in other lines of
work. It often appears to overlook the significance of such offenses in a
policeman and the demand of good conduct and right morals which the
policeman's peculiar tasks present.
So long as the civil service commission in Cleveland is permitted to
impose its own standards of personal fitness for police work, good dis-
cipline in the department cannot be attained. Neither the chief of police
nor the director can do away with the weak links in the department's
chain under the present arrangement, whereby final authority in mattere
of discipHne is given to an outside body having no connection with
police work and no intimate appreciation of its problems.
It must be pointed out, moreover, that the difficulty of civil service
usurpation extends far beyond the particular cases handled by the com-
mission. Efforts on the part of the head of the police department to
improve police discipline and standards of conduct are hindered in all
of the border-line cases for the simple reason that fear of failure in being
supported by the civil sei-vice commission makes for hesitation in ini-
tiating disciplinary action and for tolerance of much that it is desired to
correct and improve. With the recent year's record of reinstatement of
policemen whom the chief and director have adjudged to be unqualified
for the performance of satisfactory police work, is it any wonder that the
chief is hesitant in taking adequate measures to correct minor evidences
of poor discipline? And what is the effect of a ruling by the civil service
commission that while a policeman may be guilty of refusing to swear out
a warrant as ordered by his superior officer, demotion in rank is too severe
a penalty to be imposed? The obvious effect is that those members who
are least valuable to the department can snap their fingers in the faces
of their superiors and pay only so much allegiance and obedience to them
as would be required by the civil service commission.
50
Recommendations
The remedy for strengthening the morale and improving the dis-
cipHne of the department lies in transferring final authority in matters of
discipline from an uninformed, irresponsible, politically appointed civil
service commission to a single responsible, expert administrative head of
the police force. As far as its disciphnary functions are concerned, the
civil service scheme has been fully tried in Cleveland, and we submit
that it has been found wanting. It is recommended, therefore, that full
powers of disciplinary action be vested in the director of the department
of pohce, and that a trial board, composed of officers of the professional
force, be designated by the director to try delinquent members and sub-
mit findings, with recommendations to him. The director should have
the power to accept, reject, or modify the recommendations of the trial
board.
We recognize that objection will be made in some quarters that if so
much power is given to a single police head in matters of promotion and
discipline, he will abuse it by interjecting elements of political favoritism,
and that giving members of the police force a share in determining these
matters is dangerous. This danger is admitted, but we shall never solve
the police problem in America until we give honest and effective leader-
ship an opportunity to show what it can do. There is no chance for pro-
gressive improvement in a police department if the hands of the responsi-
ble executive are tied in his dealings with his men. Here again we must
turn to Boston for an example of a rational system. As we have seen,
complaints against members of the force are heard by a special trial
board of three captains appointed by the police commissioner. The
commissioner, however, is always supreme. He can at any time change
the personnel of the trial board, order a new trial, or set aside the recom-
mendations of the board in regard to the punishment to be imposed. His
word is final, and from it there is no appeal to a higher civil authority.
On no other basis can responsibility be centered and a police force be rid
of useless or dishonest employees. To divide responsibility with a civil
service commission, a mayor, a court, or any other authority, is to sow
the seed of demoralization and to make real success impossible for any
administrator, no matter how able.
Briefly, we do not believe that large strides in the improvement of
the police service can be accomplished in Cleveland under the general
assumption that:
1. Cleveland can only have public servants who are politically
minded and whose natural dishonesty must be checked and guarded
against at all times.
[511
2. That members of the police force who do the work can never know
their job as well as persons on the outside, for example, newspapermen
and politicians, and that policemen have little or no natural respect for
themselves or pride in the success of their work.
3. That the public service is only worthy of mediocre men, and no
attempt need to be made to get superior men.
4. That power and authority necessary to do a given job well cannot
be entrusted to a public servant.
52
CHAPTER VII
UNIFORM PATROL SERVICE
POLICE operations will be discussed under four headings, repre-
senting four functions of a police department's work, viz., uniform
patrol service, detective bureau operations, special activities, in-
cluding crime prevention work, and the secretarial division.
Patrol by members of the Cleveland uniform force is a matter largely
influenced by tradition. Little change in the method of distributing the
patrol force or in supervising its operations has occurred within many
years. Some improvements have recently been made in the reporting
of work performed by the patrol force, although slight use is made of this
information ; for the most part it becomes merely a matter of record and
is not employed for purposes of administrative control. While there
have been substantially no changes in police patrol practices, or in the
geographic distribution of the force by precincts, there have occurred
many marked changes in conditions prevailing in Cleveland.
It is not unusual for a migration of population to occur which com-
pletely alters the police problem of a district. The influx of negroes,
which has occurred in the Eighth Precinct, presents a new police problem,
and so does the mixture of races in the Third, Fifth, and Sixth Precincts,
lying southeast of the business center of the city. The character of
these areas has so changed in a short time as to alter completely the de-
mands made upon the police department. Again, there have been
instances of rapid change from good residential districts, with a perma-
nent population, to boarding-house and furnished-room districts, ac-
commodating a transient population. This has been true in the Fourth
Precinct, which has become in recent years a much livelier district as
far as calls upon the police service are concerned. Then, on the other
hand, there are changes in certain limited districts which tend to reduce
the need of police attention. Some areas change from populous resi-
dential districts to manufacturing or warehouse centers. The police
problem is greatly altered in a given precinct, as in the case of a portion
of the Fifth, for example, when several rows of tenement houses are torn
down and a factory erected in their stead.
[53]
Not only has the character of districts changed in the past twenty
years, but changes in methods of transportation have altered the prob-
lem of police work. Years ago there was little traveling at night, and
identification of those who did travel was comparatively easy, whereas
now the number of people moving about after dark has increased a
thousandfold. The use of the automobile alone has revolutionized the
police problem. The movement of automobiles must be regulated to
promote safety; they must be guarded from theft; and increasing
vigilance is necessary because criminals make use of them in the com-
mission of crimes.
Notwithstanding all of these changes in the objectives of policing,
the means and methods of policing in Cleveland remain practically
unaltered. There has been no modification of police arrangements to
correspond with the kaleidoscopic changes brought about by shifting
populations and new inventions. One gets the impression in Cleveland
that police organization is merely a conventional arrangement, sanc-
tioned by usage and traditions, but with little relation to needs or neigh-
borhoods. It looks as if it had been wrenched from widely different
surroundings and poorly fitted to its new environment. The admirable
adaptation of means to end, of machinery to purposes, which one finds
in many European departments, is conspicuously lacking. In brief,
methods and organization are not fitted to new social and criminal con-
ditions.
It is absurd to saddle on a single official the deficiencies due to so
glaring a disparity between need and system. But the new system must
be worked out and administered by a new head, capable of understanding
the inadequacies of the antiquated existing sj'stem and sufficiently
resourceful and commanding to afford Cleveland a police department
adapted to its modern conditions.
A leadership of imagination and creative intelligence is urgently
needed. Under such leadership one of the first steps in reorganization
would undoubtedly be a restudying and recasting of the present patrol
beat boundary lines. Many patrol beats have had the same boundaries
for years. Indeed, most precinct stations do not have a beat map, and
even the officers are often not familiar with the exact location of the
patrol posts. When, after a thorough study of present conditions and
present needs, the beats are revamped, they should be left open for
future changes. A beat should not be reckoned as a permanently fixed
area, but should be subject to readjustment at any time in the discretion
of the captain of the precinct after approval by the chief of police.
Patrol beats should be laid out in the light of the ordinary demands of
(54]
each particular beat for police protection, the number of patrolmen
available for duty, and the methods of patrol that may be in use or may
be put into use.
In laying out patrol beats all information in regard to street blocks
should be available. Such information is not now to be had in the police
department. It is recommended that a card record description of every
block within each precinct be prepared under the direction of the captain
of the precinct, giving the following information:
Length of block
Kind of paving
Kind of traffic
General description of buildings
Kind of street lighting
Population statistics as to total number, nationality, number
of families, permanent population, transient population
List of such important burglary risks as banks, jewelry -stores,
warehouses, etc.
List of places to be inspected by the police, as pool-rooms,
clubs, dance halls, cigar-stores with back rooms, pawn
shops, etc.
There should then be a space for entering the crime record on the
block description card, showing separately the number of complaints
of misdemeanors and felonies and the number of arrests classified by
misdemeanors and felonies. These card records of blocks should be
kept up to date by the precinct commanders, and from them information
should be obtained for the determination of patrol beat boundaries.
Number op Policemen Needed
Another matter which should be considered under a progressive
leadership of the police is the number of policemen necessary for Cleve-
land. We cannot undertake to say in any confidence whether or not
the police department needs more policemen. Certainly the crime rate
in Cleveland affords plenty of opportunity for work by any additional
men who might be appointed to the police force. Certainly, too, the
addition of more men to the patrol force or to other branches of the
service would show some returns in lessening the number of crime com-
plaints and increasing the number of crimes solved. In this connection
Detroit offers an illuminating experience. Complaints of robbery were
steadily reduced for a period of four months, in which the police force
was increased each month. An official bulletin of the Detroit Depart-
[55]
merit discloses that in September, 1920, with a shortage of 198 men,
there were 98 robberies committed, as against an average of 55 for Sep-
tember of the four preceding years. In October, with a shortage of 170
men, there were 74 robberies against an average of 61 for the previous
four months of October. In November, with the shortage entirely
made up, there were 55 robberies, against an average of 92 for the same
month of the four preceding years, and in December, with the number of
patrolmen brought up to 132 in excess of the regular quota by December
31, there were 48 robberies, against an average of 93 for the same month
of the previous four years.
A comparison of personnel quotas and police costs in Cleveland and
Detroit shows clearly the superior resources possessed by the latter city.
Approximately $4,500,000 was appropriated for Detroit's poUce service
during the fiscal year 1920-21, while the total estimated cost for police
service in Cleveland for 1921 amounted to approximately $2,500,000.
The total authorized police force in Detroit for the year 1921-22
numbered 1,926, while the total authorized force in Cleveland for 1921
numbered 1,381..
On the other hand, the fact has to be borne in mind that Detroit is
larger than Cleveland by nearty 200,000. Nevertheless it is found
that Cleveland has only 174 men per 100,000 population, while Detroit
has 194.
Similarly, a comparison between Cleveland's police resources and
those of St. Louis shows to the disadvantage of Cleveland. St. Louis
is slightly smaller than Cleveland, yet the estimated expenditure for the
police department in 1921 exceeded Cleveland's pohce cost by $500,000.
The total strength of the St. Louis force exceeded Cleveland's total
force by more than 500 men. St. Louis has 250 men per 100,000
population.
The question of increasing the number of men is one of public policy,
involving chiefly the amount of money that can be spared for police pro-
tection. That more policemen will mean an improvement in crime con-
ditions is not to be debated. Whether the resulting reduction in crime
is worth the additional money required of a tax- and debt-burdened city
is a question with which we have no proper concern. The questions that
confront us are these: Is the city of Cleveland getting all the return it
should from the money now spent on patrol service? If not, where does
inefficiency lie or where does failure to make the best use of resources
appear? We believe greater returns could be had from the number of
policemen employed at present — (1) by greatly extending the use of
motor vehicles, and, in some cases, bicycles, in doing patrol work; (2)
[56]
by reducing the number of daily assignments in the horse-mounted sec-
tion of the traffic division; (3) by employing some of the men in a special
service or crime prevention bureau. Whether these measures, which
are discussed in later sections of the report, will of themselves, without
adding to the force, achieve the desired results in reducing the volume of
crime, is a question which only experience can solve.
Methods of Patrol
At the present time regular patrol work is done on foot. The men
who are equipped with horses confine their attention almost entirely to
the regulation of traffic and enforcement of traffic ordinances. Special
units, known as reserve squadrons, consisting of a sergeant and three
uniformed men, are attached to nine of the 15 precincts. These squad-
rons operate in what are called, in newspaper fashion, ''high-powered
automobiles." They are held in reserve at precinct station houses during
the day to answer emergency alarms, but at night are used in a limited
way for general circulating patrol.
The results achieved by the squadrons in 1920 point clearly to the
value of extending the use of motor equipment for doing regular patrol
work, thereby replacing many foot patrolmen. In the sections of out-
lying residential districts which have good paving, motor patrol service
can take the place of foot patrolmen entirely. In congested districts,
however, where large numbers of people are passing on the street, it will,
of course, be necessary to have patrolmen doing duty on foot and cover-
ing comparatively small beats, so that they can keep their posts con-
stantly under eye.
The use of automobiles for patroling the streets is in line with the
best development in police work. New York, Kansas City, Detroit,
and many other cities have adopted the idea, with marked success. In
April of 1918 the Detroit department placed over 150 Ford automobiles
on the streets to patrol beats formerly covered by foot patrolmen. Each
machine carries two policemen — one in plain clothes and one in uniform.
During the first month of the operation of these machines felony com-
plaints were reduced from 654, reported in the previous month, to 528;
in the second month there was a further decrease of 65 felony complaints
over the previous month. "The innovation of the automobile as a
preventive [of crime] has proven a great success," said an official of the
Detroit department, "for two men can now do the work that formerly
took four or five, and are able to do any kind of work with more success
in residential districts than officers on foot."
Similarly other cities, such as St. Louis, Seattle, Los Angeles, and
157]
Louisville, are making small beginnings in the use of automobiles for
patroling beats. The hesitation of many departments in taking up the
automobile for patrol purposes is due to the expense involved in the
initial outla}' and maintenance charges. On the other hand, if two men
equipped with an automobile can do the work of five, or perhaps eight,
men on foot, a reduction in the patrol force is possible, and the saving in
salaries would more than offset the cost of providing the necessary motor
equipment.
The motor equipment to be used in patrol work should consist in
medium-sized passenger automobiles of good quality, with periiaps a
few of the smaller and cheaper cars and motor-cycles equipped with side
cars. The number of men attached to a car or motor-cycle need not
exceed two; they may both be uniformed, or one uniformed and one in
citizen's dress. There is no work performed in the non-congested areas
by patrolmen on foot which cannot be carried on in an automobile or
motor-cycle. When the need for a close investigation is seen, the pa-
trolman simply stops his vehicle and proceeds to do his work as formerly.
On the other hand, much work that can be carried on successfully by
using a vehicle cannot be done by the foot patrolman.
There are many positive advantages to be secured from motorized
patrol service. In the first place, a patrolman riding an automobile or
motor-cycle can cover from 12 to 15 times as much ground as a man on
foot. Realization of this advantage can be measured in one of two ways
— either by reduction of the number of men employed in patrol or in
making more frequent observation of a given territorJ^ On the present
basis of the distribution of patrolmen it would be possible to cover more
territory with even fewer men.
Again, patrolmen riding in cars can carry considerable equipment,
often urgently needed by them, but which it is not possible for a foot
man to carrj'. Police cars should include, as their equipment, lanterns
and other bracket materials for safeguarding dangerous places, fire
extinguisher for use on grass fires, towing rope, heavy firearms, and a
first-aid kit. These cars can at once be converted into emergency
ambulances if an occasion demands, or they may serve the purpose of a
patrol wagon in taking prisoners to headquarters or precinct stations,
thus cutting down the need for the present number of patrol wagons
used.
Moreover, the increasing use of automobiles by criminals makes it
important that policemen be equally equipped. Observations of sus-
pected persons keeping automobiles can be effected from an automobile
in a way that cannot be done from on foot. Pursuit of a fleeing auto-
[58]
mobile may be done only in another car. The greater possibilities of
the unsuspected arrival of the police when equipped with an automobile
is another advantage in dealing with criminal operations.
Finally, the use of motor equipment greatly promotes the physical
fitness of policemen in covering large territories. In emergencies they
can arrive at the scene of crime, disturbance, or accident more quickly
and in better physical shape to do police duty. The protection which
an automobile affords in severe weather is another item of great value
to be reckoned in preserving the physical efficiency of the men.
In this connection attention must be called to an order of the Director
of Public Safety, dated March 14, 1921, directing the chief to see that the
use of the research squadrons be "limited to the investigation of such
cases as are manifestly important." In partial explanation of what
would not be "manifestly important," it was ordered that the squads do
no work on crap-shooting complaints, street-corner loitering, etc. Quite
apart from the fact that the director obviously overstepped his power
as laid down by the charter in thus interfering with the functions of the
chief, the order itself has little justification, and its results can only be
to curtail the effectiveness of motor patrol. By using the squadrons
in breaking up crap games and objectionable street loitering the number
of serious complaints can undoubtedly be lessened, while the efficiency
of the squadrons in important cases of murder or robbery will in no way
be decreased.
Patrol Booths
As an essential part of the system of motor patrol, patrol booths
should be erected in the outlying districts of the city. This is a system
which has been thoroughly tested in many cities, notably New York
and Detroit. The patrol booth is in effect a miniature police station.
Its chief advantage lies in the fact that a policeman in a given territory
is made immediately available to citizens and headquarters alike. A
proper operation of the booth system requires that not less than two
men, equipped with motor-cycle or automobile, be attached to a booth
at the same time. One man remains at the booth while the other circu-
lates through the district, returning periodically to the booth. In case
the booth man is absent on an emergency call, the other remains at the
booth until his return. By this arrangement a district is given the
benefit of patrol — in point of fact the motor-cycle or automobile man
gives better patrol service than the foot patrolman, and at the same time
a policeman can be had at once in case of need. Citizens naturally have
a greater feeling of security in knowing that they can get a policeman
immediately than in knowing that a foot patrolman is somewhere in
[59]
the district and that there is a chance that he is near enough to hear a
call for help.
Precinct Stations
Precinct stations, numbering 15 at the present time, have been de-
veloped as necessary means for distributing the patrol force. The dis-
tricts served by these stations vary considerably in size, and some, due
to topographical peculiarities, are very irregularly laid out.
The precinct stations were established to meet the needs of the old
tj'pe of patrol. When men are sent out on foot to cover theii* beats, it is,
of course, necessary to assemble them by groups at a point near where
they are to patrol. As the city grew in size it became impossible to
send men from headquarters to the outlying beats, hence the need for
precinct stations. This need can be reckoned in terms of yards and
miles from the station house to the farthest removed post, and the time
required to cover this distance. Obviously, when men proceed from the
station to their beats in automobiles or motor-cycles, not as many sta-
tions will be required as under the present system of foot patrol.
It seems probable that, upon the introduction of motorized patrol,
precinct lines could be reestablished, so as to reduce the number of
precincts from 15 to seven or eight, allowing two on the West Side and
five or six in the eastern portion of the city. This calculation is but
roughly made. It is based on the following suggestions for consolida-
tions: combining the First, Second, and Third Precincts and the
westerly tip of the Fourth into one precinct that will be housed in a new
headquarters building; combining parts of the Fourth, Thirteenth,
and Eleventh, to form a single precinct; providing one or possibly two
stations to accommodate the needs of the southwest section of the city,
beyond the limits of the Fifth and Sixth Precincts. One station should
suffice for that territory lying north and east of Wade and Rockefeller
Parks, since there is no chance for extension on the north, and any an-
nexations on the east would present a new situation entirely, requiring
complete rearrangement of station faciUties. These suggestions would
need further study, but they afford an illustration, at least, of the possi-
bility of consolidation as a result of motorized patrol.
Combinations such as those suggested above will not only increase
the efficiency of the force but will lessen the cost of police administra-
tion. Every precinct means additional overhead, both in record keeping
and supervision. By combining two or more precincts into one this
overhead can be reduced, thereby saving in expense and contributing
to a greater uniformity in police practice. Officers now performing
duplicate tasks of supervision could be freed for more productive work
[60]
in other special divisions of the department. An examination of the
station records and reports in the Tenth and Twelfth Precincts showed
that there is a very small volume of work, and yet a full complement of
officers is required to supervise approximately 35 men in each of these
precincts. Seventy men, or even as many as 125, distributed over four
platoons, can easily be managed in a single command and the clerical
duties incident to the work of such a number of men can well be handled
without addition to the number of men employed in clerical work in a
single precinct. On the whole, discipline is likely to be better under the
business-like aspects of a large unit than in the home-like atmosphere of
small, quiet precincts.
Again, emphasis must be laid on the fact that these improvements
and others of a similar nature can come only as the result of a sustained,
intelligent leadership of the police. They cannot be successfully in-
stalled by law or ordinance, or by any other legislative short-cut. They
must be thoughtfully matured over a period of years. They must be
the result of careful planning, of fearless initiative, and wise guidance.
This means a leadership of brains, free from unwarranted interference.
More than anything else the Cleveland force needs such leadership today.
Recommendations
The patrol service should be reorganized so as to accommodate the
changes which the use of motor equipment demands. It is recommended,
therefore, that —
(1) Motor equipment be used in regular patrol work.
(2) Patrol booths be established.
(3) Police precincts be consolidated so as to reduce the number
from 15 to seven or eight.
(4) Patrol beats be rearranged.
61
CHAPTER VIII
THE DETECTIVE BUREAU
THE detective bureau is the second major division of the police
organization. It is a bureau of specialized operations, involving
not only the solution of crimes which have occurred despite the
preventive efforts of all other divisions, but the apprehension of the
perpetrators who have escaped after the commission of crime. Work
on the solution of murder and manslaughter cases requires considerable
time, but the investigation of complaints involving loss of property is by
far the largest part of the detective bureau's work. These complaints
include robbery, burglary, housebreaking, grand larceny, frauds, and
swindles.
The bureau is commanded by a deputy inspector of police, who is
detailed by the chief of police to serve as inspector of detectives. Simi-
larly, he may be transferred from the detective bureau at the pleasure
of the chief. Two captains of police are detailed to serve as captains of
detectives, assisting the inspector in command. These commanding
officers are generally drawn from commands of the uniformed patrol
force, instead of being taken from the detective bureau membership.
The present inspector of detectives served as a captain in command of
the Third Police Precinct prior to being detailed to head the detective
bureau. However, he had had some previous experience in detective
work as a member of the old detective bureau. One of the two captains
of detectives was previously in command of a precinct station, and lat^r
had charge of the police training school, from which he was transferred
to the detective service. The other captain was originally a patrolman
detailed to the detective bureau. Upon receiving his promotion to the
rank of sergeant, he was transferred from the detective service to a pre-
cinct to supervise uniformed patrolmen, afterward going to the traffic
division. Upon being promoted to the rank of lieutenant he was trans-
ferred to desk duty in a precinct. Later he was promoted to the rank of
captain and placed in command of a precinct station. From this post
he was transferred to the detective bureau.
From records of this sort it is easy to see that no attempt is made to
develop detective commanders from detective personnel. The de-
[621
tective bureau in Cleveland is directed by men who have had no ade-
quate training in the detective business, and whose promotion to leader-
ship depended, in the first instance, on attaining a certain rank, and
only secondarily on experience and fitness. Under the present system,
if a patrolman, serving as a detective, obtains promotion to the rank of
sergeant, he must leave detective work and take up uniformed patrol
supervision merely because there is no rank of sergeant in the detective
bureau. He must then continue in the uniformed patrol or trafl&c ser-
vice until he has attained the rank of captain before he again becomes
eligible for transfer to the detective service. The detectives who do
not ascend through the uniformed ranks of sergeant and lieutenant
to captain are barred from attaining a post of command in the detec-
tive bureau.
There are 81 patrolmen detailed to the detective bureau at the
present time. They are assigned to various duties as follows:
4 assigned to desk duty
5 to office duty — clerical work
5 to the automobile squad
4 to the bureau of criminal identification
3 to the taxicab quad
2 to the pawnshop squad
1 to apartment house detail
1 to the hotel detail
1 to the bank detail
1 to the rooming-house detail
50 on general assignments
Of the 50 general men, five are carried on the detective bureau roll,
but assigned outside of the bureau as follows : one as a clerk in the chief's
office, one to the law department for investigation of civil action cases
involving possible damages to the city, one in charge of the department's
telephone exchange, one as a clerk in the office of director of public
safety, and one to the mayor's office, serving as the mayor's bodyguard.
These men are not doing detective work and there is no justification for
carrying them as detectives.
All detectives are taken from the rank of patrolmen in the uniformed
force. Detectives who have served in the bureau for ten years or
more are paid a salary of $2,406.80, which is slightly more than the
salary paid to lieutenants of police in the uniformed force; those with
less than ten years' service to their credit receive S2,288, which is the
same as the salary of a uniformed lieutenant. Detectives are selected
by the chief of police. Whether he is permitted to exercise his own judg-
ment without influence of any sort depends on the mayor and director.
163]
Detectives may be returned to duty in the uniformed force in the discre-
tion of the chief of pohce and by his order. The privilege, however, is
rarely used. The detective assignment is considered as a promotion,
and loss of the assignment occurs only in such extreme cases as would
result in demotion in rank in the uniformed force as a result of charges of
incompetency.
Poor Quality of Detectives
The detective personnel is supposed to be the "cream" of the uni-
formed patrol force. The superior type of work demanded of detectives
and the greater compensation which they receive would seem to require
that they be the ablest patrolmen in the service. We doubt the truth
of the presumption that the detective personnel in Cleveland is entitled
to rank as a group having superior abilities. In the first place, there
appears to be no adequate provision for selecting detectives on the basis
of proved worth in doing the type of work required. No particular
standards are followed. Not infrequently policemen are detailed to the
detective bureau in recognition of daring and as a reward for the per-
formance of some unusually good bit of work in the uniformed force,
such as making an arrest at the scene of a major crime. Daring and
quick wit are valuable assets to the detective, but their display in a
single case does not warrant the conclusion that the men have other
qualities of perception and aptitude needed in detective work. The
point is that there is no regularly pursued practice of looking out for
detective material or of trying men out in an apprenticeship assignment
in the detective service.
Another consideration on which we base our conclusion that the
detective personnel is not of the uniformly high caliber which should
characterize a detective force is the low rating of the detective group in
the United States Army Alpha Test. It is a singular and significant
point that the detectives as a group made a lower average rating in this
standard psychological test than any other group in the police service.
The range of scores made by 10 different groups is shown in Table 3.^
' This psychological examination was made in connection with the present sur-
vey. The method of marking is as follows:
Grade of
intelligence Explanation
A Ver>' superior intelligence
B Superior intelligence
C+ High average intelligence
C Average intelligence
C — Low average intelligence
D Inferior intelligence
E Ver>' inferior intelligence
[64]
Approximate
mental age,
Alpha score
years
135-212
105-134
7S-104
45- 74
25- 44
11-13
15- 24
9-10.9
0- 14
Below 9
TABLE 3.— MEDIAN SCORES AND RANGE OF SCORES OF POLICE
DIVISIONS
Rank or division
Median
Range of scores of each
division
Low third
Middle third
High third
Captains
9SC +
50-75
76-104
10.5-154
Lieutenants
95 C +
36-81
82-108
109-165
Sergeants
99 C+
28-79
79-109
110-166
Vice squad
75C=F
23-61
64- 84
84-134
Detectives
59 C
23-50
51- 71
72-131
Training school
63 C
25-56
57- 74
77-138
Traffic
61 C
5-56
56- 74
75-137
Mounted
78 C+
22-59
60- 91
92-155
Emergency
67 C
19-64
65- 80
83-150
Patrolmen
67 C
6-52
53- 82
82-170
From this record it is seen that the average of scores made by 63 de-
tectives is 8 points below the average of scores made by 759 patrolmen
doing duty in uniform, 16 points below the average score of 26 vice
bureau operatives who were chosen from the uniformed force in the
same way that detectives are, and 36 points below the average made by
46 lieutenants who are rated on approximately the same salary schedule
as detectives.
Another basis of scoring which shows the number attaining different
group ratings is given in Tables 4 and 5.
From this tabulation it is seen that no detective was rated in the A
group, although all the other classes of the service had some percentage of
their membership in this grouping. The percentage of detectives in the
B group was less by one-half than that of any other class, and six to seven
times smaller than the percentage of lieutenants, sergeants, and vice
bureau operatives in the B group. Two detectives were in what is rated
as the failure group, with a score of less than 25, while no member of the
lieutenants, sergeants, or vice bureau classes fell so low.
Of course the Alpha test is not a complete measurement of ability.
As has been pointed out, the ratings are useful as measures of general in-
telligence, but they do not include measurements of personality and
character traits such as initiative, leadership, bravery, honesty, etc.
They are measures to indicate the speed and accuracy with which persons
are able to deal successfully with new situations and problems. But the
comparison, even on this limited basis, is highly significant. The "cream
of the uniformed force" serving as detectives should not fall below the
uniformed force in a test involving general information and ability to
meet new situations quickly and accurately.
6 [65]
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Poor Work of Detective Bureau
One does not have to resort to psychological tests to prove the ineffi-
ciency of the detective personnel or the general run-down condition of the
whole bureau. A glance at the organization or an examination of the
reports of the men easily sustains the point. With the exception of the
criminal identification section, which is ably managed, the whole bureau
seems to be run on a small-town pattern. Poor office arrangements no
doubt contribute in some measure to the appearance of disorder and
confusion generally evident in the bureau. Clerks, officers, detectives,
witnesses, and citizens shuffle around in a large room, and there is no
appearance of system or method in the hurly-burly of the day's routine.
Supervision of operations is poor when it is employed at all, and the
records are inadequate and carelessly prepared.
Lest this be thought too sweeping an indictment of the work of the
bureau, it may be well to quote some of the reports of the detectives.
During the month of January, 1921, Detectives Callahan and Cowles,
working together, handled 16 cases of burglary and larceny. The follow-
ing are their own complete reports of their activities on burglary cases
during this period:
1. "Detective Cowles and I investigated this complaint we were unable
to locate the men suspected will continue on same."
2. "Detective Cowles and I investigated this complaint we were unable
to get any trace of the thief or property."
3. "Detective Cowles and I investigated this complaint was unable to
locate the man suspected."
4. "Detective Callahan and myself investigated above report, inter-
viewed Mr. also made inquiries in that vicinity, was unable to
get any further information than original report."
5. "Detective Cowles and I investigated this complaint we were unable
to learn anything on same."
6. " Detective Callahan and myself investigated above report, interviewed
manager also made inquiries in that vicinity was unable to
get any trace off the thief or thieves. They do not suspect any one."
7. " Detective Cowles and I investigated we were unable to get any trace
of the thief or property."
8. "Detective Cowles and I investigated this complaint we were unable
to learn anything on same."
9. "Detective Cowles and I investigated the complaint was unable to
get any trace of the thief or property."
10. "Detective Cowles and I investigated this complaint we were unable
to get any trace of the thief or property this job evidently was done by
boys."
[67]
11. "Detective Cowles and I investigated this complaint we were unable
to learn anything on same."
12. "Det. Callahan and myself investigation above report. Interviewed
Mr. was unable to receive any further information or any trace
of the Burglars."
13. "Det. Callahan and mj'self investigated above report, interviewed
Mr. Ixarned that the property stolen was insured for more
than he valued it at. Satisfied this report is not Legidiment."
14. "Det. Callahan and myself investigated above report, interviewed
Mr. . Also made inquires in that vicinity, was unable to get any
trace of Burglars & property. Will continue."
15. "Det. Callahan & myself investigated above report was unable to
give any description. Does not suspect any one."
16. "Detective Cowles and I investigated this complaint we were unable
to learn anything on same."
The above represents a whole month's work of two detectives on
burglary cases. Reports of this type could be instanced almost indefi-
nitely. In many cases they seem to show that the detectives merely veri-
fied the fact that a crime had been committed, and beyond asking a
question or two of the neighbors, made no attempt to solve the mystery.
Under such circumstances the wonder is not that crimes occur in Cleve-
land, but that an)"- perpetrators are ever arrested.
Inadequate Supervision of Detective Work
One of the significant causes of this situation just described is the
lack of adequate supervision of detective operations. Apparently each
detective determines for himself just how much he shall do on a given
case and when he shall regard the case as closed. Of any adequate fol-
low-up on individual cases, there is none. There is no administrative
oversight to put enthusiasm and determination into the solution of
individual crimes. The commanding officers of the detective bureau de-
vote most of their time to important cases upon which newspaper com-
ment is centered, and very little time to the less interesting task of man-
agement. Indeed, the role of detective officers is that of super-detective
case workers rather than supervisors. The commanding officers lock
their offices and go out into the field to assist in the investigation of
murder cases, pajToll robberies, and other important crimes. They have
been accustomed also to make trips to other cities, sometimes as far
away as California and New York, for the purpose of bringing to
Cleveland fugitives held by the police in other jurisdictions. When the
inspector of detectives makes such a trip, the detective bureau is man-
aged by an assistant. This practice must be condemned without reserva-
[68]
tion. Ordinary detectives can be assigned to make such journeys. It is
far more important that detective commanders stay on the job and keep
in constant touch with the mass of less spectacular cases where the
scrutiny of immediate supervision is needed. Otherwise the minor cases
will slip by almost unnoticed except for a perfunctory examination by the
detectives assigned to them.
Briefly, the detective bureau needs administration badly. It is im-
possible to spend days in solving particular crimes and at the same time
supervise the operations of 80 men who are working on hundreds of cases.
Recommendations
One approaches the subject of recommendations for the detective
bureau almost with despair. The whole department needs overhauling;
the methods of work require a complete shaking up; and much of the
present personnel should be gotten rid of. However, the following recom-
mendations are pertinent to our inquiry:
1. The director of police should be given the right to recruit detec-
tives directly from civil life through original appointments. There is no
good reason for restricting the selection of detectives so that none but
members of the uniformed force are eligible. The uniformed patrol
force may or may not have in sufficient number the sort of material that
is demanded in detective work. The chances are that the patrol force
does not have the best material available in the community. It is not
here proposed that all members of the detective service be taken directly
from civil life. When uniformed patrolmen are found to have the quali-
fications for detective work, they will be preferred because of their experi-
ence. But the department should no.t be compelled to limit its choice
of detectives as at present.
Detective work requires some men of scientific training — men having
the educational foundation that will permit them to develop scientific
methods of operation. There are many principles of criminology, such as
the examination of the physical evidence of crime, which can only be
applied and developed by specially trained men. These men cannot be
drawn exclusively from the uniformed patrol force for the reason that
men having scientific training do not enter the patrol service. Aside
from those with qualifications of this type there are men in private life
specially trained in getting information and making investigations, who
would be willing to enter the detective service at the rate of pay now
given detectives, provided there were an opportunity for making a credit-
able career. But these men would not first serve an apprenticeship of
walking beats as patrol watchmen.
[09 1
Detective bureaus are the weak spots in all police departments of this
country, chiefly for the reason that the choice of detectives is limited to
men who are recruited and trained as patrolmen. In this connection
August Vollmer, head of the police department of Berkeley, California,
asks the following pertinent questions: "Where is there a business con-
cern that compels applicants for various vacancies in the organization to
submit to the same physical and mental examination; where the janitor,
clerk, salesman, engineer, department heads, superintendents, and man-
agers are all compelled to answer the same questions, measure up to the
same physical standards as to health, height, weight, age, and sex, and all
commencing their employment at the same occupational level and at the
same pay? Where is there a business concern that limits the selection of
men for technical positions to employees holding inferior positions in the
same estabhshment? " It is obvious that police departments are alone
in their indefensible practices in such matters. If any real progress is to
be made in detective bureau efficiency, it must come after the removal of
senseless bars to getting men who have the intelligence and training
needed to perform the special tasks that daily confront detectives.
2. Under any circumstances, some of the personnel of the detective
bureau, perhaps a majority of it, would be recruited to the detective ser-
vice from other branches of the police organization. The present method
of such recruiting, however, should be changed. Instead of detailing
patrolmen to become full-fledged detectives at once, there should first be
an apprenticeship assignment. Members of other divisions of the service
who show signs of special fitness for detective work — an ability to re-
member faces, a knowledge of local thieves and their habits, an ability to
get accurate information and to make coherent reports — should be de-
tailed to the detective bureau to serve as junior detectives. To require a
period of apprenticeship does not constitute a discrimination against
members of the force as compared with civilians who might be appointed
to full detective rank. The civilians will also have had their period of try-
out in some civil pursuit. As a matter of fact, the member of the police
force has every advantage in securing the detective posts which do not
necessarily demand scientific training. The department affords the
patrolman his qualifying experience, while the outsider has not such op-
portunity to develop it.
Members detailed to the detective bureau from other branches of the
department should be classed as junior detectives for a period of pos-
sibly two years, during which time they should be tested and observed
as candidates for appointment as senior detectives. During this period
of apprenticeship members should receive the salary attaching to the
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rank from which they are detailed. If their detective work proves satis-
factory, appointment to full detective rank may be made permanent. If,
however, junior detectives do not show themselves to be adapted to
detective work, they should be remanded to duty in uniform. This would
not be considered such a hardship as at present, for the reason that there
would be no loss in pay upon being remanded.
3. After quaUfying in the period of apprenticeship or probation, as
it might be called, appointment to full rank of detective should follow.
Two years will not always suffice to prove a detective's abihty, hence
provision should also be made for remanding senior detectives to uni-
formed duty whenever they do not measure up to the bureau's demands.
There are no soft places in detective service where the lazy or inefficient
man may be shelved. " Deadwood" can perhaps be used in posts which
involve routine duties and httle initiative, but "deadwood" is a total
loss in the detective bureau. A detective should either show continuous
advancement thi'ough energetic work and the accumulation of experi-
ence or he should be put out of the detective service altogether.
Accordingly, it is proposed that, as continuance in the detective ser-
vice presupposes fitness, automatic increases in salary should be given.
A salary schedule should be devised which would allow some five or six
increases, ranging from the lowest, approximately the salary paid to a
uniformed sergeant, to a rate equaling that received by a uniformed
captain of police. The schedule should be so arranged that the last in-
crease should come about three years before the pension service retire-
ment.
The advantages of granting salary increases to detectives without
regard to changes in rank are twofold. In the first place, it would make
the detective service a career of itself and would permit advancement
entirely on the basis of meritorious work. In the second place, it would
do away with the present situation, wherein detectives, to secure ad-
vances in rank, must compete in examinations designed to cover types of
work other than those which they have been doing. It would also do
away with the absurd practice of sending back to duty in the uniformed
force a detective who receives promotion to the rank of sergeant, with its
corresponding decrease in pay,
4. Promotion to posts of command in the detective bureau should be
made from among members of the bureau, and not, as at present, from
the uniformed force. The determining consideration to date has been the
rank — captain and inspector — desired for commanding officers of the
detective bm-eau. The quahfication of experience has been entirely over-
looked. What is wanted is not rank, but brains and abihty.
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5. With well-trained men in the detective bureau, under competent
leadership, constant attention would have to be given to the administra-
tive problem. After all, running a detective bureau is like running any
complicated business: it requires an intimacy with detail and continual
follow-up, so that every individual feels the stimulus of the leadership.
In this respect the Cleveland detective bureau is conspicuously lacking
at the present time. What is needed is a man in charge who will live con-
stantly with his cases and whose guiding principle will be that no case is
settled until it is solved.
6. Members of the detective bureau should do only detective work.
They should not be detailed as clerks, telephone operators, or to guard
the person of the mayor. They should be technical men, well paid for
their abilities, and not job-holders who can be assigned to any task.
CHAPTER IX
SPECIAL SERVICE DIVISION
THE third major function of police work, crime prevention, is poorly
developed in the Cleveland department. Of course, some measure
of crime prevention work is aimed at by the uniformed force and
detective bureau as well, but we are here considering the distinctly con-
structive efforts to prevent crime — efforts that cannot be employed by
the uniforaied force, the members of which must necessarily devote most
of their attention to patroling streets in the capacity of watchmen.
Detectives are kept busy for the most part with solving crimes that have
not been prevented, although they do some preventive work. The de-
velopment of a special unit engaged in preventive work need not relieve
the members of either the uniformed force or the detective bureau of
any feeling of responsibility for taking action looking toward crime
prevention. The members of a special service division, however, should
be freed from the duties of watchmen, and should not have their time
fully occupied with the apprehension of criminals and solution of crimes
already committed. Such a division should investigate conditions that
are known to lead to the commission of crime and should become an
expert agency in handling persons who show themselves disposed to
delinquency.
Inasmuch as there are practically no special facilities in the Cleve-
land department for undertaking constructive action in preventive
work, our survey was confined to the need for such a service. The vice
squad or bureau, as now organized, is the nearest approach to a special-
ized crime prevention unit in the department. This squad is organized
as an independent unit under the direct supervision of the chief of police.
Two lieutenants of police are assigned by the chief to command the
bureau. Members of the squad are patrolmen who are detailed by the
chief in the same way that patrolmen are detailed as detectives. No
provision is made for recruiting directly from civil life. Members of the
squad devote considerable time to the investigation of complaints re-
ferred to the vice bureau by the chief. Some of these complaints come
from citizens and others originate with the uniformed force. These
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complaints often relate to suspicious conditions which lead the com-
plainants to believe that certain premises are being used for prostitu-
tion, gambling, sale of liquor, or illegal traffic in narcotics. Sometimes
complaints are made against individuals, but in either case members of
the vice squad must get new and additional evidence of a specific viola-
tion of law repeated some time after the violation referred to in the com-
plaint. Thus, the vice bureau operatives are chiefly engaged in the
investigation of general conditions. In their effort to develop specific
charges of violation against individuals, much of their best work is done
by way of anticipating the occurrence of new violations. The very
investigations made by them often lead to an abandonment of activity
on the part of the promoters of vice. In this respect the work of the
vice squad takes on more of the aspect of crime prevention than does
the work of other divisions. The vice bureau, therefore, may serve as a
nucleus for building up a unit devoted to investigations of conditions
and individuals with a view to forestalling criminal acts.
The attitude of police heads toward the vice bureau at present seems
to be one of suspicion. The chief of police keeps in his office a complete
record system, which provides a check on all complaints assigned to
members of the vice bureau for investigation. Daily reports of the
vice bureau's operations are submitted to the chief and the director. No
other division of the police service submits such a report to the director.
It was not disclosed what use, if any, the director makes of these reports.
It is necessary to maintain a close check on the operatives who are sub-
jected to such unusual temptations as are met with in combating prosti-
tution, gambling, and traffic in liquor and drugs. But the chief should
not be burdened with the details of checking 30 men in the vice bureau.
Rather, he should depend on an officer of higher rank than now detailed
to the vice bureau to do the checking and hold him responsible for
general results as in other divisions of the service.
While complaints which are referred to the vice bureau cannot be
thrown out without rendering a report of action taken thereon, it is
cases that are supervised rather than the methods employed by operatives
in working on the cases. An examination of the records maintained in
the vice bureau discloses the fact that supervising officers do not keep
adequate check on the cumulative operations of the men under their
command. It would seem that too much rehance is placed on the auto-
matic check which the mere submission of supplementary reports is
supposed to afford. True, operatives are required to write up a sum-
mary of each day's work in books kept in the bureau for that purpose,
and this enables the supervising officers to tell what was done by the
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men on the day's cases, provided the men are always faithful in record-
ing all cases. It does not, however, afford a means of keeping tab on
complaints which are a few days or a week old. As a matter of fact,
supervision in the vice bureau, as in the detective bureau, is conducted
on the memory basis, which is bound to be wholly inadequate in a large
department. It is simply impossible for two commanding officers to
remember the multitude of assignments given to some 30 men extending
over a period of weeks and months. It would be a laborious task to
find out, from the record now kept, how many cases or complaints A or B
is working on at any given time, or to learn from their reports what
progress has been made on the cases which they have under investiga-
tion. As a result, old cases become dead cases, and are readily lost to
the view of supervising officers in the shuffle of each day's new business.
Other Crime Prevention Units Needed
As has been pointed out, the vice bureau should comprise but one
section of the special service division, although it could well remain a
more or less independent section. There is need for the immediate
establishment of a woman's bureau, composed of not less than 10 police
women. Cleveland is the only city of over a half million population
that does not employ police women. The experience of such cities as
London, New York, Detroit, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis
has proved conclusively that women can perform police work of the
highest order, often in a way that cannot be equaled by men. The
Police Woman's Section should perform most of the duties now carried
on by the Cleveland Woman's Protective Association, an organization
privately financed and managed. Police women can do most effective
crime prevention work in the inspection of dance halls, parks, moving-
picture theaters, and other places of amusement. They can do good
work in pre-delinquency cases with incorrigible girls and boys. They
can also take under investigation the cases of adults who may possibly
contribute to the delinquency of minors. The investigation of com-
plaints of missing persons, which many times disclose runaway cases,
can often be best handled by women. Women selected for this section
of the crime prevention division should possess a strong sense of social
service, and should have the training and outlook of the type of social
worker employed by such private agencies as charity organizations, the
Travelers' Aid Society, and the Woman's Protective Association.
At the present time dance halls are being supervised by a special
unit known as the Dance Hall Inspection Bureau. This bureau is
attached to the office of the director of public safety. The dance hall
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inspectors, numbering about 40 deputies or special police, are not mem-
bers of the police department. Thej' are paid fees by the proprietors
of the dance halls which they inspect. A clerk-patrolman detailed to
the director's office assigns the inspectors and keeps a record of dance
hall permits. The dance hall inspection division should be abolished
and the work taken over completely by the police department, for the
inspection of public dance halls is a duty which cannot properly be
delegated to unofficial observers whose salaries are paid by the people
they inspect. Much of this work should naturally fall to the division
of women police.
A unit of welfare officers is another much-needed section of the
special service division. This unit may be composed of both men and
women. It should be the duty of this division to investigate the bad
home conditions that make for delinquency and cases of destitution
coming to the attention of the police. Another fruitful field of crime
prevention service that can be performed by a welfare unit is that of
giving counsel and aid to persons who are turned out of hospitals and
other institutions, and who are often unwelcome in their former homes.
Experience in other cities shows that such persons easily drift into a
life of crime. The same field of valuable service is found in dealing
with criminals who are released from institutions and prisons and thrown
on the community, often without opportunity for making a living in a
fair and honest way. A welfare unit should keep in touch with oppor-
tunities of employment for these persons. By helpful cooperation a
sort of protective supervision may be established looking toward the
redemption of many who would otherwise gravitate to vice and crime.
It is a fact that parents of wayward children, and many persons who
are on the verge of desperate helplessness, will frequently turn for aid
to a welfare division of the pofice service when they would not approach
the police through the ordinary channels which carry with them the idea
of repression and even hostility toward those in distress.
An excellent precedent of such a unit of welfare officers exists in the
system which Commissioner Woods established in New York during
his term of office. Carefully chosen officers were assigned to the busier
precincts of the city to ferret out conditions which seemed to be leading
people astra3\ This experiment did not have time to prove itself before
Commissioner Woods left office, but it illustrates the new technique
in police work for diminishing crime.
The fourth section of crime prevention service needed is a unit of
juvenile officers. Complaints of juvenile delinquency should be re-
ferred to specially selected officers, who may be chosen because of their
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peculiar qualifications as experts in handling children's cases. This
Juvenile Bureau or Section should cooperate actively with the Juvenile
Court and make many of the investigations for the court which are now
made by court probation officers. It is a poHce function, and the
police department should not be relieved of responsibility for performing
it. Juvenile officers should be distributed through the city by assign-
ments to precincts, although general supervision of their work should be
carried on by the special service division at headquarters. The work
of juvenile ofiicers attached to precincts in Chicago affords an excellent
example of the value of such a division. The long-established juvenile
bureaus in the Detroit and Los Angeles pohce departments likewise
have proved the value of employing a special unit engaged in crime
prevention among children.
All of the special activities mentioned above should be consolidated
in a single division devoted to the more constructive features of crime
prevention. One of the highest ranking officers in the service should be
selected by the director of police to head this important division. His
duty would be to survey general conditions in the city which indicate
opportunity or need for corrective crime prevention measures. He
should then see that the various sections of his division are well co-
ordinated. Although the several fields of work are specialized, there
is much opportunity for active cooperation. Thus, members of the
vice bureau, in the course of their investigation of complaints of gamb-
ling and sex delinquencies, run across hangers-on and idlers against
whom they may not proceed with formal charges, but who, neverthe-
less, may properly be investigated. Information regarding these
border-line cases of delinquency should be handled by the Police Wo-
man's Section, Welfare Section, or Juvenile Section, as the case may
warrant. Similarly, the investigations conducted by the Police Wo-
man's Division or Welfare officers will many times disclose conditions
that should be investigated by the vice bureau. It is important that
the common factors of a crime prevention program be recognized and
that the agencies carrying out such a program be closely knit together.
There should be a single head directing the development of a crime pre-
vention program in its several aspects.
Members of the special service division who are not engaged on
specific assignments should keep in constant touch with the breeding
places of crime throughout the city. Insistent police surveillance of
pool-rooms, cigar-stores having back rooms, hotels and lodging-houses,
and the other places where there is customary idling will do much to
prevent the commission of petty crimes on the spot and the hatching of
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crimes to be committed elsewhere. The young criminal is a gregarious
being, and idling with bad associates is the primary requirement for
sending him or her on the road to some criminal act.
It is not necessary for the police to wield a club or even to proceed
with a warrant in many cases. They can, wholly within their legal
rights, so interfere with idling that it may be largely broken up in public
places. By sending a boy home or questioning an idler or by making
many inquiries of the origin and intentions of idlers, the police can make
idling uncomfortable instead of interesting and at times profitable. It
requires groups of idlers to keep alive the contacts of the underworld,
which show the way to traffic in drugs, liquor, and prostitution. Crimes
ordinarily produced by these associations cannot flourish when the
police are ever questioning and scrutinizing.
The importance of having a separate division recognized as the re-
sponsible agency in the department for the promotion of facilities for
constructive efforts of crime prevention cannot be overestimated. When
such a division is established, there will be a logical place for inaugurating
new practices and experiments in social service and pre-delinquency
activities, thus avoiding haphazard creation of a number of small new
units which are likely to be poorly organized and inadequately super-
vised. Finally, the special service division should become the police
department's liaison division between schools, hospitals, and private
charitable and correctional institutions. Because of the character of
its work, such a division could readily secure a degree of cooperation
with other agencies of social service that is not now usually had by any
other branch of the police department.
It must be admitted that this whole idea is new in police work in
America, but its basic idea gives shape to the police work of the future.
There is as much room for crime prevention in our communities as for
fire prevention or the prevention of disease, and in this endeavor to
limit the opportunities of crime and keep it from claiming its victims the
police department must take the leading part.
[78;
CHAPTER X
THE SECRETARIAL DIVISION
THE work properly belonging to the office of a secretary of the
police department is now scattered among several offices and
divisions, with almost no coordination. There is a waste in men
employed in the various tasks relating to record keeping, filing, and
correspondence. Furthermore, the work that is being done is inadequate.
Personnel service records, payrolls, equipment, repair, and supply
records are prepared and kept in the office of the director of public
safety, and certain classes of permits, such as for dances and parades,
are issued from that office. A detective and a patrolman are detailed
there to care for a portion of the poUce work. Other clerks devote part
of their time to clerical work which pertains to the administration of the
fire department as well as police. All the correspondence and steno-
graphic work of the police department is done in the office of the chief
of police. One detective, two sergeants, and three patrolmen are de-
tailed to do this work. Personnel records dupUcating those kept in the
director's office are also filed in the chief's office.
The bureau of records cares for the preparation and fihng of pawn-
shop and lost property records, and all records relating to the license,
ownership, and identification of automobiles. In this bureau also are
filed all criminal complaints and copies of reports made by the various
divisions of the department. Six patrolmen are detailed to serve as
clerks in this bureau. There is no officer in command, the patrolmen
severally assuming responsibility for the management of the bureau
during the eight-hour period when they are on duty. The record bureau
is cramped in a small room on the first floor of the police headquarters
building. It is poorly ventilated and lighted by a single window open-
ing on a court. Records are not protected from fire. The record bureau
facilities of the poHce departments in Detroit, where the whole top floor
of the headquarters building is given over to the record bureau, and in
St. Louis, where an enormous well-hghted room is used for the record
bureau, are in striking contrast to Cleveland's meager facilities.
A clear duphcation of record keeping is found in an office known as
[791
the bureau of information, which has no organic relation to any clerical
division and no particular place in the scheme of organization. Three
sergeants and three patrolmen are detailed to this office. Three addi-
tional men are attached to a telephone desk on another floor. These
desk officers also belong to the bureau of information. A sergeant of
police, known as the court sergeant, has an office adjoining the munici-
pal court. This officer keeps a record of cases presented in court and
also prepares statistics of daily crime complaints.
All of the offices mentioned above should be combined in a single
division under the management of a secretary of the department.
Civilian clerks and stenographers — most of them girls — should be
employed to do the work in the place of policemen. Clerks trained and
experienced in clerical duties can do the work better and at far less cost
than at present. It is absurd to employ detectives and sergeants of
police in activities of this kind.
The secretarial office should be organized in several sections, as, for
example, the correspondence section, the filing section, the information
desk, and the division of statistics. Combined in one bureau, all this
work which is now scattered throughout the department could be co-
ordinated in a way that would increase its effectiveness and greatly
reduce its cost.
80