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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Justice - 25. The Police and Other Public Contacts - 2. The Southern Policeman
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Chapter 25. The Police and Other Public Contacts 539
blind or crippled can be considered as a police candidate.”^® Even the for-
mal police training is usually very deficient.®
Slightly over half the police systems studied are now using some form
of civil service,** many of them for less than five years. But civil service
requirements, as employed in Southern cities, reduce only slightly the
influence of politics on the police system, for elected officials still run the
civil service and select among the many who meet the formal require-
ments.^^ This means a low degree of personal and professional independ-
ence. ^^The fact that many police systems in the South are subject to
politics puts a premium on the vote-getting qualities of the policeman.”*^
Salaries of policemen rank somewhere between those of unskilled and
skilled workers.® Less than half the police systems studied have worked
out some sort of retirement fund.^ Ambitious skilled workers like railroad
workers, mechanics, carpenters, painters, plumbers, and electricians some-
times take police jobs when unemployed but try to get back to their old
trades as soon as regular employment is assured.^® The vast majority of
policemen, however, do not belong to this category, and they hang on to the
police force.® In the typical Southern police force the turnover is small and
the average age high. Even when the police force is replaced for political
reasons this does not generally mean a rejuvenation, ^‘for older men can
commonly deliver more votes.”^^
Although the policeman in the South is not considered a professional
•
“Formal training for his duties is provided in only 33 of the 112 communities j
in about
half of the others, he works as a sort of apprentice under some older officer for a period
of three to six months, and commonly at slightly reduced pay. In one-fourth of the com-
munities no training is provided. One day he is a barber, textile worker, truck driver,
mechanic, or private night-watchman 5
the next day, with uniform, badge and gun, he is a
full-fledged police officer. In the meantime he may have promised to read a little booklet
of four to sixteen pages, which contains rules of the police department.” pp. 17-18.)
**
Sixty-five of 112. {Ihid,^ p. 14.) In few cases do the Southern city police civil service
systems approximate in rigor the systems employed by Northern cities.
’“The salary of patrolmen was $100 or below a month in 32 communities, $101 to
$125 in 47, $126 to $150 in 24, and $150 or over in 10. Though these salaries are not
large, they represent a real increase for most of the people who joined the police force.”
{Ibid,, pp. 14-15-)
®“In 13 instances, police are retired at more than half pay, while in 29 others it is
one-half or less. Only 2 of the 21 villages studied (with fewer than 5 policemen each) had
any retirement plan} 6 of the 32 systems with from 5 to 14 police each had some form of
retirement pay, while retirement plans were found in 37 of the 59 communities with 15
or more policemen.” {Ibid,, p. 16.)
*“In the last five years, among the 112 police systems studied, 41 had no police to
resign for a better job, and 42 more had less than one-fifth resign for that reason. They stay
because they are receiving more income than before—half again as much, often even twice
as much. The policeman’s salary runs for twelve months a year, too, and for more than a
few of them, as will be seen later, there are opportunities for making money on the side.”
{lhid,y pp. 15-16.)
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