Seattle's 1895 Police Chief Wanted Fewer 14-Hour Shifts—and More Control Over Opium and Newsboys

At the regular monthly meeting of the police commissioners last night, the annual report of Chief of Police Rogers was adopted, together with the commissioners' own report to the mayor and city council. The chief's report contains full tabular statements of the police department's operations in 1894 and several recommendations, all indorsed by the commissioners.

Chief Rogers said that the reduction in the number of men last spring had not, in a general way, impaired the efficiency of the force, but that it had resulted in some officers working ten, twelve, and fourteen hours, as against the eight hours' duty performed by patrolmen for the same compensation. He earnestly recommended that an additional sergeant be created and that salaries be readjusted in proportion to the hours officers are required to serve.

He also recommended a room at the station for at least ten men, so the department could keep a reserve force ready at all times; an examining board of commissioners and the city physician to meet each March 17 and examine every member as to mental, moral, and physical fitness; and amendments regulating pawnbrokers, junk dealers, and second-hand dealers. Such dealers, he said, should keep a written record in English of every article taken in pawn or purchased and report daily to the chief. The number of children arrested for petty larceny and the inability to trace stolen tools and small articles made this urgent.

He further urged licenses to regulate the sale of opium, morphine, and cocaine, with a bond and heavy penalty for violation; and rules for garbage carts and swill gatherers, requiring collection only between 12 p.m. and 5 a.m. with tightly covered wagons.

The arrest tables showed 3,069 persons arrested in the year, with $14,224.11 in cash received nominally from prisoners; stolen property totaled $12,849.21, of which $6,416.23 was recovered. The patrol wagon made runs traveling 1,088 miles. Department property was valued at $15,824.33.

The commissioners indorsed the chief's recommendations and added their own: employment of city prisoners on street improvements; licensing newsboys nominally so they could be placed under police control; a single-cell lockup at Fremont; and control of the impounding of stock and dogs under a bonded poundmaster. They reported a decrease of 1,081 arrests in 1894 as compared with 1893, and a decrease in total expenses. They found the chief and subordinate officers diligent and faithful. The commissioners tabled until next meeting the aldermen's recommendation that policemen who stood by while Great Northern crossings were torn up be dismissed; the hearing of charges by R. L. Grimes against Detective G. J. Philbrick was continued; and W. C. Greer's application for a position on the force was filed.