Policing the City's Morals
A look inside the 1893 police report shows a city grappling with 'disorderly conduct,' 'vagrancy,' and a scandal involving an officer accused of vote-buying.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The 1893 police report reveals 4,500 arrests, including 1,451 for vagrancy and 1,898 for drunkenness. Amidst the statistics, a political scandal erupted involving special officer C.M. Conroy. During the trial of Nick Long for 'repeating' (illegal multiple voting) in the school election, Conroy refused to answer whether he had voted seventeen men at one dollar a head. Following the disclosure, the police commissioners dismissed Conroy from the force, with Commissioner Wallingford stating he did not want the 'odium' of such men on the force.
“I did not want the odium of having such men on the force.”
The 1893 debate over police integrity and election corruption echoes modern anxieties regarding civic accountability and the influence of money in politics. 'Repeating' may be a historical term, but the underlying concern—who controls the vote and the power of those sworn to uphold the law—remains a core civic argument in Seattle.
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