Seattle's Corrupt Policing: The Fee System of 1887

There is a general dissatisfaction in the community regarding the fee system in relation to the police. It is not necessary to detail the list of fees collected by officers, but in order to understand the situation, it is enough to say that every arrest made by a member of the police force, whether city or territorial, nets the arresting officer a fee of $3.50. The records from the City Clerk and County Auditor's office show the total amounts drawn by officers in 1886. These fees were for work and services performed, whether the person was jailed or not. Many think that the whole fee system is wrong and claim that a policeman should receive no money from any source outside of his official salary during his term of office. These salaries should be made large enough to ensure the employment of efficient men who should be made liable to instant dismissal if they received any money outside of their authorized salary. The tables show that the fee system enables some officers to receive much more than others who may be equally as efficient and who devote themselves just as faithfully to the work. The fact is that most of the arrests which are made in the city are made on either Commercial or Washington Street, or in the district bounded by Jefferson and Main Streets, where the officers receive the most fees, with no regard to their actual efficiency or attention to duty. In the districts away from the center of the city, the officers on patrol have few opportunities to obtain these fees.