TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT 63 



casionally prove fatal. Without fencing in the entire water 

 course and managing it under lock and key, it is impossible to 

 prevent some injudicious people from running into danger and 

 risking their lives. 



POLICE PROTECTION. 



Early in 1918, following the incoming of the new City 

 Administration, the Zoological Society approached Police Com- 

 missioner Enright with an earnest request for a continuation 

 of the special detail of two plain clothes officers during six months 

 of the year, to do duty in the Zoological Park in arresting the 

 most flagrant of the violators of the Park regulations. 



Long experience has revealed the fact that one officer in 

 plain clothes is of more effect in preventing vandalism in parks 

 than half a dozen officers in uniform. The police uniform is 

 always to evil doers in parks a danger signal which is visible 

 from afar, and for this reason park vandals are passive while 

 a uniformed officer is in sight, but become active in his absence. 

 The officer in plain clothes is, however, a different matter. He 

 is practically omnipresent, and the liability of arrest by an inno- 

 cent looking civilian has a deterrent influence that is of very 

 great value in park protection. It is our estimate that in the 

 prevention of pocket-picking and vandalism in public parks, one 

 diligent plain clothes officer, or better still, two officers working 

 together, can accomplish more results in the detection and pun- 

 ishment of disorder and crime than could be rendered by six 

 ofllicers in uniform. 



Our request to Commissioner Enright was considered pa- 

 tiently, and was graciously and immediately granted, very much 

 to the benefit of the Zoological Park during the past summer. 



ZOOLOGICAL PARK MILITARY COMPANY. 



The Military Company formed and drilled in the Zoological 

 Park has maintained its organization, excepting for a depletion 

 by enlistments and service in the army and navy. Fortunately, 

 the small company that remained after nearly half its members 

 had gone into the service of the United States, was not requisi- 

 tioned for anything more, outside the Zoological Park, than bat- 

 talion drills and semi-military parades. The great number of 

 soldiers and sailors quartered in and near New York quite appre- 

 ciably diminished the risk of disorder in New York City, to meet 

 which the company was organized. 



