offenders by the various local judges. In addition to this personal variation in treatment of offenders the findings of the courts and the penalties imposed would reflect the temper of the communities in which the courts are situated as well. In some communities where there is a blue law public conscience, the disorderly individual, the vagrant and the petty misdemeanant would be shown to fare badly in the hands of the law. In other communities where there is more tolerance and an easy going code of public deportment, the offenders guilty of similar infractions of the law would be found to receive light punishment, if any at all.

These studies of the work of the magistrates' records in the New York courts are startling because they show us so clearly to how great an extent justice resolves itself into the personality of the judge. However good or however inadequate the laws may be, their enforcement depends upon the magistrates' attitude toward them and toward those guilty of breaking them.

The New York judges publish the facts about their individual records, accepting whatever praise or blame the records may invoke and by this publication are well on the way to establish a flexible but more equitable standard of justice.

CITIZEN CO-OPERATION WITH THE POLICE

DEPARTMENT1

CORNELIUS CAHALANE2

I notice from Mr. Fuld's introduction that he has evidently read a book called "The Police History of England," but he omitted to state one of the requirements in the early days in England which was that a person who did not join the decenary or group of ten men organized in the various towns and municipalities had to furnish a bond that he himself would obey the law and that he would diligently prosecute any person who violated it. I think while this was all right in those days, it would be a bit hard now to require every person in New York to furnish a bond that he would conform to the law.

According to Mr. Fuld's introduction my subject should be the co-operation of the citizen with the police force. Almost every city employe with whom the police department has to deal in the enforcement of the law immediately shows a badge or tells the policeman that he works for the department of water supply, or the highway department, or some other department, and asks the policeman to let up on him on that account. I think the first thing we should do when we begin to co-operate with one another is to avoid using our office for the purpose of evading the law. I suppose that is true in many instances of policemen. I imagine that when the tenement house department or the board of health inspector go around to a policeman's house requesting him to comply with the law the policeman does, the same thing. He tells the inspector: "Now, I am a policeman," and shows his shield. "Interference may be all right for the fellow next door. The law is a good thing to have and to enforce on everybody, but not on me. Let me out of it." There are a great many policemen who think the law is not made for them. The first principle we should bear in mind is that the laws are made for city employes also. Therefore, in order to co-operate with the police department it is necessary to know what the police department is trying to do and what it is required to do by law. The police department's functions are five in number, viz: the preservation of the peace, the enforcement of the law, the protection of life and property, and the prevention and the detection of crime. While all city departments are not required by

Lecture delivered to municipal employes in Municipal Building, Borough of Manhattan, March 6, 1918.

2Borough Inspector of Manhattan, and Director of the Police Training School, New York City.

law to co-operate with the police department, the police department is more peculiarly situated in that it is required to co-operate with every other department.

Within the last twenty years various city departments, among them the fire department, the bureau of fire prevention, the health department, etc., were permitted to make ordinances, which with the approval of the board of aldermen became law, but as a rule these departments never made any provisions to enforce the laws. Therefore, it becomes the duty of the police department to enforce the laws that are enacted by the other departments of the city government.

As an instance, the fire department's functions are to prevent and extinguish fires. Every branch of its service is organized along these two lines. In conjunction with the fire department, the police department's job is to give the fire department at a fire the free and uninterrupted use of the streets in the vicinity of the fire. In the congested sections of the city, the fire department cannot work without the police department. Absolute team work is required between the two departments to handle a large fire in the city. Yet we find that we are constantly hampered by city employes at fires. There are certain persons in the city government who by reason of their employment with the department are entitled to pass inside of the fire lines. These are very few in number. Under the law at a fire the commanding officer of the fire forces is in charge. The fire commissioner designates what city employes he desires to be permitted inside of the fire lines, and when they exercise this privilege they must display their shield or badge of office. The police department is constantly hindered and interfered with by employes of various city departments who come around at fires and other places where police lines are established showing their shields and asking to be permitted inside of the lines. This is a violation of the rules of the police department and a violation of the law. In this instance the city departments do not co-operate with the police department. City employes should not continuously try to break inside the lines either during parades or at other places where police lines are established for the purpose of preserving order and protecting life and property.

The police department co-operates with the health department by enforcing the sanitary code which is established for the purpose of preserving the health and the sanitary conditions of the city, and it is peculiar how many city employes refuse to comply with the regulations established by the department of health. They feel that because they are city employes they are privileged; the law was made for everyone else, but not for themselves.

Of course, the police department can be held responsible only for the crimes committed from the building line on one side of the street to the building line on the other side. It is difficult for the police department to prevent crimes which are committed in buildings. If a crime is committed in a building, there is only one chance in a hundred of its being witnessed. There is a possibility of catching the criminal either while he is going in or going out of the building or while he is attempting to dispose of the property, but you can appreciate how difficult it is for the police force to guard the rear, the roof, etc., of buildings. In view of this situation it is apparent that it is necessary for people who live in buildings to exercise ordinary care in the protection of their property.

We find that most thieves in this city profit by the lack of caution that is exercised by the average householder. The average thief feels that if he can get into and can get out of a building without being seen, and can dispose of the property without getting caught, so far as the individuals inside of the building are concerned, he is perfectly safe.

Thieves profit by the carelessness that is exercised in buildings. Here in the City of New York we find thousands of dollars of property stored in lofts, such as silks of every description, feathers, etc., with absolutely no care exercised to safeguard it by the persons who own it or by the persons in charge. There are no burglar alarms and the rooms have thin papier mache partitions so that a thief can easily break in or if he gets in by subterfuge it is easy for him to break out. We find householders leaving property of value in bureau drawers, under vases, in the beer mug on the dutch shelf, and in other hiding places peculiar to the housekeeper. The thief knows that. The housekeeper before hiding any property says: "Now where will the thief be least likely to look for my property?" She thinks he will not look under the paper in the bureau drawer, he will not look under the dutch shelf, he will not look under the rug or under the vase, and she accordingly puts it in these places. When the thief gets into the room he says to himself: "Now where did this women think I would be least likely to look?" The result is that a great many of the crimes committed in this city inside of the buildings can be prevented if the owner of the property exercises ordinary care in safeguarding his valuables.

One of the big jobs and one of the most necessary duties of the police department is to try to prevent crime. You will notice that the framers of the charter in describing the functions of the department very wisely put prevention before detection. They said the functions

of the department were the prevention and the detection of crime. For the purpose of preventing crime, the department has established in various precincts throughout the city what are known as welfare offices. It is a sort of uplift name, "Welfare," but about the best we could think of for it. Usually when a squad or a branch of the city service is created, if a regular name is given to it, it goes. Well, we continued this branch of the service under the name of "welfare" for the reason that we could not think of a better one. The work of the welfare officers is to try to prevent crime. They try to prevent the young boy in the city from becoming a thief. Usually when a boy is arrested he is taken to the station-house, then to court and then sent to jail. There is nothing corrective about it; it does not do him any good. When he comes out of jail he feels that he is an outcast of society; he sees no avenue open to him except to commit crime. Thousands of dollars and considerable effort are spent by the City of New York and by well-intentioned persons to correct the boy after he comes out of jail, but it is a question in my mind whether they succeed. The department feels that something should be done before the boy goes wrong. Here the question arises as to what should be done, and it has been decided that the best thing is to follow out the Lord's prayer, "Lead us not into temptation." We try to remove temptation through the welfare officers.

For instance, if you go over on the west side of the city, or to various parts of Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island or Queens, you will find coal yards and coal dealers who are very careless about the manner in which they safeguard their coal. Usually there is a fence in the yard. A boy, a couple of boys, come along the street with no intention of stealing. They see a board loose. An opportunity presents itself of stealing the coal, and like an old hardened thief (an old hardened thief will never steal anything unless he knows where he can dispose of it) they begin to plan. They know if they take the coal they can sell it. There are enough people around the neighborhood who would buy it and ask no questions. They know when a boy comes around with coal he does not represent Burns Bros., but it does not interest them; they want coal. If we can get the owner of the coal yard to safeguard that fence, both the temptation and the opportunity for the boy to steal are removed.

There are other cases. You will find a wagon loaded with produce bulging out of the back going down the street. The driver is sitting on the front seat; all he sees is the horse. The boys come along with no intention of doing wrong; they see the wagon passing