Show THE IE TRUTH ABOUT OUR POLICE by by- by William B. B A Seattle Chief of Police 1922 to 1926 1925 Mayor Brown Drown returned from the New York convention breathing fire and promptly reinstated me at the head of the police department It was a compliment to me and a de deserved deserved de- de served servert rebuke to Mrs Landos who as acting mayor had brought about my ni removal remo The mayor and 1 I discussed the bootleg situation again and I told him something of lf finy my plan to smash the ring also that I had about de decided decided tie tie- to cancel my trip to the police chiefs' chiefs convention in the east Dont do that Bill the mayor said You go to the convention and that will give me a chance to take it up wi with h the tho dry squad I was gone about about- a month visiting visiting visit visit- ing many eastern cities clUes and talking over problems with the chiefs Everywhere I 1 found conditions simIlar similar sim aim ilar liar to ours ours Everywhere politics and bootlegging went hand in hand W When en I returned home It was with the determination to smash the Olmstead machine or to force it to smash me One of ot my first discoveries discoveries eries was that the federal prohibition prohibition prohibition tion forces had t tapped the telephone wires of Olmsted and his confederates ates Also a prohibition agent said that he had heard Olmsted giving 9 orders to someone In the police de department department tie tie- I hoped they had tapped my wires ires also but I 1 did nothing a about about- it for I hoped to beat the federals to Olmsted WIRE TAPPING DISCLOSED One of the mayors mayor's stool pigeons who now was associated with the federal work became intoxicated and threatened to get even with Uh Doc Doe Brown We Ve arr arrested ted him one night to for fo- drunkenness and found in his pockets data concerning the wire tapping carried carded on by Prohibition Director Roy Lyles Lyle's agents I sent men and squads here and there over the city to confiscate Olmsted liquor and nd trucks We raided Olmsted protected places I encouraged the police to wat watch h Olmsted's Olmsted's Olmsted's Olm- Olm sted's customers and slowly but surely the Olmsted monopoly began to to totter Gradually I forced the cost of operation to a prohibitive figure as the best means of hurting the bootleg king It was open Season season sea sea- son on Roy Olmsted former policeman police police- man Whenever my men would find a resort that the Olmsted men on the force were refu refusing to see I sent loyal men to smash it For the most part the raids went through as scheduled but there were still many oc occasions when our plans plank ere were tipped off from Inside With Olmsted on the run help swung to both police and federal agents from other bootleggers who long had felt the pinch of the com corn bines bine's bin bine s I talons Some of the policemen police police- men were appearing worried and I told the mayor trouble was was ahead for some of the boS boys I Was wag right for several everal members of ot the dry squad and arid other members of the department nt are facing trial and prison terms Olmsted himself h hs s been en tried convicted and t nc d to a federal penitentiary One of f his trusted w b became came a government agent There TI i Is l talk that Olmsted himself has aided the government It required two months month of or work by city and federal officers t to smash Olmsted's machine Mv My Iy lac of success In combating him fo for months previously came through his hl ability to make and hold friends and the strange belief of ot so many otherwise honest men that the prohibition prohibition pro pro- law is Js not a good law and therefore may be violated with impunity impunity im Jm- punit i iA i iA A BORN LEADER Olmsted Is a born leader He was known among pol policemen cemen as a square shooter His police friends were more lo loyal al to him than they ever will vill be to any appointed chief chic of police Olmsted d knew and profited by the problems of the policemen their ever present need for tor money and their contempt f for or official orders He was liberal in his payments for small favors and he was vas always careful to carry his hisman hisman hisman man man man- into the work by careful de degrees degrees de- de grees Finally before the officer would realize it It he was an integral part of ot the bootleg organization with no way of getting ge out But even the arrest of Olmsted and his conviction has not inter interfered interfered seriously with the whisky traffic c in Seattle The price of ot Imported imported Im im- ported whisky today is the same as before Some of the Olmsted lieutenants lieutenants lieutenants lieu lieu- tenants are still oper operating ting and are supplying their old customers customer through an ingenious order system which they think Wink will defeat th the prying telephone tappers The price of whisky Is the true index of the extent of bootlegging No business reacts more swiftly to the old ages-old law of supply and de tie tie- mand Whisky can be bought In la Seattle today oday at 20 for three quarts with commensurate reductions in price for case lots And the remedy for police participation participation participation par par- in bootlegging The same probably as against any other form of graft Select men as honest as are a available and then pay them thema a a. salary sufficient to compensate them theta for long hours the dangers of their calling and to Insure their continued self respect To my mind the wages of ot policemen like Ilke those of bank are are far too low to guarantee honesty Copyright Cosmos Newspaper Syndicate Inc Through the American Free Press Read tomorrow Chief Severyn's corking story of nut visitors who pester police chiefs |