Seattle’s Burglary Panic Didn’t Survive the Record Book
Police Chief Rogers pushed back on calls to expand the force, producing department figures that showed theft reports down by half—and blamed the rest on sneak thieves rather than professionals.
Chief of Police Rogers, when asked last evening as to the advisability of increasing the police force in view of the rumors as to the increased frequency of burglaries, replied: 'I can see no necessity for an increased police force. If the sensational reports of burglaries and other crimes were facts, it might warrant an increase in the department. As a matter of fact, burglaries and crimes of a like nature at this season of the year are at the minimum since the adoption of the new charter, which is practically true of the whole history of the city. This statement is borne out by the records of the department, as the following statement taken from the record book known as the record of stolen property, for three months—December, January and February—will show:
Total number of reports of thefts— December, 1892: 74; January, 1893: 119; February, 1893: 94; total 287. December, 1894: 77; January, 1895: 81; February, 1895: 65; total 223. December, 1895: 43; January, 1896: 40; February, 1896: 34; total 117.
This table shows a decrease in the number of thefts for the past three months as compared with the same three months for two years past of virtually 50 per cent.
The records list burglaries and hold-ups across the city—at Third and Jackson, the Weaver house, Fifth and Madison, the St. Charles hotel, the Westminster hotel, the Kenilworth Inn, the Vendome, the Albermarle house, the Tobin house, and many private residences and tool sheds. In December, 1893, there were 21 burglaries; January, 1894, 12; February, 1894, 11 burglaries and 4 hold-ups. In December, 1895, there were 5 burglaries; January, 1896, 8; February, 1896, 7.
'I want to say in closing that many of the so-called burglaries of the past three months are not burglaries in any sense of the word. They are merely sneak thief work. There have not been six actual professional burglaries where anything of value has been taken in the past three months.'
“There have not been six actual professional burglaries where anything of value has been taken in the past three months.”
Every era has a crime panic and a fight over whether to hire more police. Rogers’s 1896 response—cite the stats, dispute the sensational reports, and argue the force is already sufficient—could be lifted almost verbatim from a modern city-budget hearing, even as the list of break-ins shows real losses behind the argument.
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