The New York Police Force 225 



reiteration of the falsehood tended to encourage 

 criminals, and so to make it not a falsehood. For 

 a time the cry was not without influence, even with 

 decent people, especially if they belonged to the class 

 of the timid rich; but it simply wasn't true, and so 

 this bubble went down stream with the others. For 

 six or eight months the cry grew, first louder, then 

 lower ; and then it died away. A commentary upon 

 its accuracy was furnished toward the end of our 

 administration; for in February, 1897, the Judge 

 who addressed the grand jury of the month was able 

 to congratulate them upon the fact that there was 

 at that time less crime in New York relatively to 

 the population than ever before; and this held true 

 for our two years' service. 



In reorganizing the force the Board had to make, 

 and did make, more promotions, more appointments, 

 and more dismissals than had ever before been made 

 in the same length of time. We were so hampered 

 by the law that we were not able to dismiss many of 

 the men whom we should have dismissed, but we 

 did turn out 200 men more than four times as 

 many as had ever been turned out in the same 

 length of time before; all of them being dismissed 

 after formal trial, and after having been given full 

 opportunity to be heard in their own defence . We 

 appointed about 1,700 men all told again more than 

 four times as many as ever before ; for we were al- 

 lowed a large increase of the police force by law. 

 We made 130 promotions; more than had been 

 made in the six preceding years. 



