KALORAMA CITIZENS ASSOCIATION, INCORPORATED,
THE WESTMORELAND,

2122 California St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008, January 22, 1968.

Honorable JOHN L. MCMILLAN,

Chairman, Committee on the District of Columbia,

House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Our members strongly support the police pay raise bills being considered by your Committee. We consider police as essential to a peaceful and ordered society, and the charges of "police brutality" are baseless, and those who make these charges are mendacious.

We request the support of the House District Committee to take the following additional steps to reduce crime: (1) make criminals know they are not welcome in the Nation's Capital. So far, no one has spoken out in this way, warning criminals to move on, including Members of Congress. Yet LIFE Magazine (Jan. 12, 1968) reported that the new Mayor of Gary, Indiana, a grandson of a slave, warned criminals "There are those who are no longer welcome in Gary". Bravo for Mayor R. G. Hatcher. It is significant that no one in the new District Government has had the courage to speak out in this fashion. Instead, highly placed members of the City Council rushed to embrace Stokely Carmichael when he returned here. In city after city, Negro moderates are rising to protest the Federal coddling of Black Militants, extremists, and criminals. Here, too, Negro ministers, the Washington Urban League, and other Negro groups have spoken out, and moved against Stokely Carmichael-but not our new Mayor and City Council, who are dominated by the White House.

(2) Urge Congress to immediately move to set up citizen patrols to take care to protect Congress and District citizens from criminals and marches. Help bus and taxi drivers, and law-abiding citizens Negro and White. There is broad support even in the Congress for citizen patrols; for instance, Senator Robert F. Kennedy recently told a New York audience: "we need full citizen support for the police departments of our nation. . . . citizen support means a refusal to tolerate lawlessness in any form. . . . the reporting of crimes to the police.... citizens can begin to take on the actual patroling of their neighobrhoods. Citizen patrols have worked in far more dangerous communities: in Crown Heights, the 'Maccabee' patrols substantially cut down violent crime; volunteer police in East Flatbush, Tampa, Florida, and elsewhere have prevented violence." We need all the help Congress can give, not only to protect law-abiding citizens but the Congress as well. President Johnson has said "The safety and security of its citizens is the first duty of government". We are delighted he signed the crime bill, but then he proceeded to dilute its application in the District of Columbiathe Nation's Capital-immediately. Not a single criminal has left town, and citizens are constantly struck down, murdered, raped, criminally assaulted, most often by repeaters with long records, or coddled juveniles. Help! Help! Help! Respectfully yours,

Mrs. JEWELL B. SMITH, President.

Mr. WHITENER. Are there any other witnesses who desire to be heard? If not, thank you very much for your presence. The subcommittee will meet at some subsequent time in executive session to come to a conclusion on the pay legislation, as such.

(Whereupon, at 10:50 a.m., the subcommittee adjourned.)

POLICE DETECTIVES

HEARING

BEFORE

SUBCOMMITTEE NO. 2

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON

THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

NINETIETH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

ON

H.R. 13203

TO ABOLISH THE RANK OF DETECTIVE IN THE METROPOLITAN POLICE FORCE AND TO PROMOTE DETECTIVES TO DETECTIVE SERGEANTS

NOVEMBER 9, 1967

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON: 1968

COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

JOHN L. MCMILLAN, South Carolina, Chairman

JAMES T. CLARK, Clerk

CLAYTON S. GASQUE, Staff Director
HAYDEN S. GARBER, Counsel

SUBCOMMITTEE No. 2

ABRAHAM J. MULTER, New York, Chairman

WILLIAM L. SPRINGER, Illinois

WILLIAM H. HARSHA, Ohio

CHARLES MCC. MATHIAS, JR., Maryland
LARRY WINN, JR., Kansas

POLICE DETECTIVES

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1967

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, SUBCOMMITTEE No. 2, Washington, D.C. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, in Room 1210, Longworth House Office Building, at 10:00 a.m., Hon. Abraham J. Multer (Chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Representatives Multer (Chairman of the Subcommittee), Dowdy and Winn.

Also Present: James T. Clark, Clerk; Hayden S. Garber, Counsel; Sara Watson, Assistant Counsel, and Leonard O. Hilder, Investigator. Mr. MULTER. The committee will please be in order.

We have met this morning to consider H.R. 13203, a bill to amend the District of Columbia Police and Firemen's Salary Act of 1958 to abolish the rank of detective in the Metropolitan Police force, and to promote persons with such rank to the rank of detective sergeant. Without objection, H.R. 13203 will appear in the record at this point.

(H.R. 13203 follows:)

(H.R. 13203, 90th Cong., 1st Sess., by Mr. Multer, on Sept. 28, 1967)

A Bill To amend the District of Columbia Police and Firemen's Salary Act of 1958 to abolish the rank of detective in the Metropolitan Police force, and to promote persons with such rank to the rank of detective sergeant.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the salary schedule contained in section 101 of the District of Columbia Police and Firemen's Salary Act of 1958 (D.C. Code, sec. 4-823) is amended by striking out "Detective" where it appears under "Class 3" in the column entitled "Salary class and title".

SEC. 2. Each officer and member who, immediately prior to the effective date of the amendment made by this Act, was in salary class 3, as a detective, shall, on such effective date be placed in and receive basic compensation at a scheduled rate in salary class 4, subclass (b) with the title of detective sergeant as follows:

In computing the time served by each officer or member so assigned from detective to detective sergeant on the effective date of the amendment made by this Act for purposes of advancement to the next higher scheduled service step or longevity step as provided in section 303 or 401, as the case may be, of the District of Co

lumbia Police and Firemen's Salary Act of 1958 such time shall commence as of the effective date of the amendment made by this Act.

SEC. 3. The amendment made by the first section of this Act shall take effect on the first day of the first pay period beginning after the date of the enactment of this Act.

Mr. MULTER. We will also place in the record a communication from the District of Columbia Commissioner, Walter E. Washington, addressed to the Honorable John L. McMillan, Chairman of the Committee, dated November 8, 1967.

(The report referred to follows:)

GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,
Washington, November 8, 1967.

The Honorable JOHN L. MCMILLAN,
Chairman, Committee on the District of Columbia,
United States House of Representatives,
Washington, D.C.

DEAR MR. MCMILLAN: I have for report H.R. 13203, 90th Congress, a bill "To amend the District of Columbia Police and Firemen's Salary Act of 1958 to abolish the rank of detective in the Metropolitan Police force, and to promote persons with such rank to the rank of detective sergeants."

I believe H.R. 13203 to be unnecessary and without apparent justification, since, from a sound pay administration standpoint, there is no basis, through the legislative process, to automatically promote to the rank of Detective Sergeant all of the detectives in the Metropolitan Police force, 138 in number.

The President's Commission on Crime has endorsed the recommendation of the International Association of Chiefs of Police that the supervisory ranks in the Criminal Investigation Division should be reduced rather than be increased, as would result from the enactment of H. R. 13203. In order that the objective expressed in the report of the Association may be accomplished in an orderly manner, the Chief of Police has adopted the following policy:

1. Members of the department who held the grade of detective on the closing day for filing for the 1967 promotional examination, may file for “Detective to Detective Sergeant" or for "Detective to Uniform Sergeant."

2. Once the detective files his application, his decision is irrevocable.

3. There will be one written examination for promotion to sergeant, which will include material applicable to investigative procedures as well as to supervisory techniques.

4. After the examination has been graded and the necessary adjustments have been made in the test scores to secure the desired number of eligibles, separate registers will be established for uniform sergeant and for detective sergeant.

5. The detective sergeant register will consist of those detectives who file application for promotion to detective sergeant and who qualify on the written examination. Separate adjustments in the test scores will not be made.

6. Promotees will be selected from the detective sergeant register to fill vacancies which occur because of promotion or separation of incumbent detective sergeants who have not elected to convert to uniform sergeant duty. 7. The same procedure as above will be followed for the 1969 promotional examination.

8. After the register established from the 1969 examination for promotion to Detective Sergeant has expired, this procedure will terminate and there will be no further promotions to the grade of Detective Sergeant.

9. No further promotions to the grade of Detective will be made after the current register expires.

The passage of this proposed legislation would further compound the present inbalance of supervisor-subordinate ratio in the Criminal Investigation Division. I therefore strongly recommend against the enactment of H.R. 13203.

I have been advised by the Bureau of the Budget that, from the standpoint of the Administration's program, there is no objection to the submission of this report to the Congress.

Sincerely yours,