Kristian Williams - Our Enemies in Blue - Police and Power in America

some of the authority he needed to meet that demand, putting him at thehead of the watch. InIn the spring of 1843, Mayor Richard H. Morris proposed another roundof reforms designed to reorganize the city government and consolidate thepolice. The state legislature authorized the city to create and manage a single,centralized police department-specifically a "Day and Night Police"consisting of 800 officers. Under this plan, each ward would have its ownpatrol, and the officers had to live in the wards where they worked. Thecouncilors would nominate officers from their ward, and the mayor wouldappoint them. This plan was finally accepted in May 1845.193The new police ranked as extremely modern by the criteria listed earlier:a single organization was entrusted with the exclusive responsibility forlaw enforcement, served a specialized police function, patrolled twenty-fourhours a day, and employed salaried personnel.194 In fact, New York City isoften credited with having the first modern department in the United States.As we've seen, its claim to this title is debatable. The Day and Night Policemarked a step forward in a nationwide progression, drawing from andsolidifying ideas already in circulation elsewhere. But if New York's policedid not invent the model, they set the standard for the rest of the country. Atthe same time, they also set a new standard for political interference.The mayor's power to appoint officers of all ranks made it clear that thenew police force would be politically driven. An officer's job came as areward for his political loyalty, and to keep the job he needed to support theofficials who appointed him. 195 Even if the politicians themselves did notdemand such support, it was nevertheless built into the system. Since anyincoming councilman would be likely to replace the present police withthose of his own choosing, the cops understood that to keep their jobs theyhad to keep their patrons in power. Thus the police came to represent notonly a means of securing political support through patronage, but also ofensuring influence through more direct means. In 1894, the LexowCommission concluded thatin a very large number of the election districts in the city of New York,almost every conceivable crime against the elective franchise was eithercommitted or permitted by the police, invariably in the interest of thedominant Democratic organization of the city of New York, commonlycalled Tammany Hall.The Committee's report goes on to document police involvement in theArrest and brutal treatment of Republican voters, watchers, and workers;open violations of the election laws; canvassing for Tammany Hallcandidates; invasion of election booths; forcing of Tam many Hall pastersupon Republican voters; general intimidation of the voters by the policedirectly and by Tammany Hall election district captains in the presenceand with the concurrence of the police; colonization of voters; illegalregistration and repeating, aided and knowingly permitted by the police;denial of Republican voters and election district officers of their legalrights and privileges ... and on and on. 19 6 51