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.POLICING TH.E TOWN. I -I

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.POLICING TH.E TOWN. I I HOW SWANSEA COMPARES WITH II OTHER BOROUGHS. The Swansea W :h Committ. held a special meeting on Tuesday ai ter- Boon, the chairman (AM. D??n Jones) pm-siding. The commit bee approved the action of a sub-ooroanitiee in acc?p?- ? ing the tender of the .Neath Automo- bile Co. for a new Napier motor ambu- lance for £..500. I The Committee then proceeded to dis- cuss the question of the application of the Chi?f Copstable for an increase in the police force. The M?yor remarked that he saw bv the returns prescni?fl by the Chief C^ on- ?tahi? (Captain Alf Thomas) and t'? Borou? Trea?urpr (Mr. W. H. ?sh- mole) that Swancea compared very favourably with other towns as regarded the population per constable. Swansea and the other towns, with a few exceptions, were all over 800. Mr. Pow lesland asked whether the Chief Constable thought the towns he had mentioned were most comparable to the conditions of Swansea. The Chief Constable: I don't think I so, sir, or I would not have put them in. ¡ Answering Mr. Devon aid, the Mayor (Aid. T. f. Corker) said t-hla" l Cardiff was 631 against 770 in Swansea. Ald. Miles pointed out that in many of the towns mentioned in the report, there was a great, deal of floating population, and towns like Blackpool. Weymouth, Brighton, etc., could not be I compared to Swansea. The Chairman: Quite SQ. The Major pointed out that the figures in Newport, Bristol, Cardiff, Hull, Newcastle, etc., were natural. Mr. Powlesland gave notice that he I was going to oppose the scheme, and would fight it in the Council if it went through that afternoon. Clauses Objected To. The report was then read through seriatim, Mr. Powlesland making ob- jections to several of the clauses. W^ith reference to sickness, annual leave. and the weekly rest day which the report tstatefl wa& coming into force, lie said surely in all the years past their Chief Constable had ma de some provision for sickness. Then with regard to the weeklv rest dav coming into operation, was it not a faet that they had adopted that on principle, and made some pro- vision for it some time ago. Chairman: We did. The Chief Constable said the Act would not come into operation for four or five months. Chairman: Wo gave the Sunday rest, and we had an increase in the force. I Mr. Powlesland: Can I know the number? The Chief Constable: Fifteen men. Ald. Miles: Provision has been made for sickness, the annual leave, and the wookiv day of rest. Mr. Powlestand: How many years is it since we were relieved of the respon- sibility of supervising the docks. Chairma.n: There are only about six njen there altogether. Mr. Powlesland: It takes a very large area from us, and we are able to uti- lise the police who were supervising the docks for the tc.wn; you can add six to the fifteen. Police Patrols. I Mr. Powlesland next askcxl a ques- tion with regard to police patrols for some of the districts, and said he meant foot patrols. Has it not been agreed to utilise mounted patrols so that they can get over the ground more quickly, and so get over the difficulty that way? Chairman: Oh, no; I cannot'agree tcr that. Aid. Miles said he thought it was a fact that the Chief Constable gave as one of his reasons for suggesting I' mounted patrols the lack of men in the districts. The Chief Constable said if he had more men, he should always use his I mounted patrols. Mr. Powlesland then asked if they were going to have police <rogs. Chairman: That is a question we shall have to consider. later on. Street Accidents. I The next item in the report upon which Mr. Powlesland raised discussion was with reference to street accidents, which the report stated had increased. Mr. Powlesland asked for the number of street accidents duriug the last five years, and the extent of the increase. Chairman: How can you expect us to answer that. We ought to have notice. Mr. Powlesland We may as well not flit as a Watch Committee if we are not going to see where we are. In reply to Ald. Miles, the Chief Constable said there were ten police- men on point duty. Permanent Fire Brigade Staff. The next item read from the report stated that Swansea was underpoli.'ed compared with other towns. Mr. Powlesland asked how many police were set aside for fire brigade purposes, and whether some re-ar- rangement could be made in that re- j spect so that the Chief Constable would have more men. To his mind hB I thought that wouM be preferable to in(rpàsing the forc in the way sug- j increasing the fore,(- LLL the way -,ug-I The Chief Constable said they had four men permanently at headquarters, and 21 members who did police duty. Mr. Powlesland And they receive extra pay and do extra work. The Chief Constable said he con- t.ideroo it was a cheaper way than, having the separate expense of a fire brigade. Answering Mr. Powlesland, the Chief Constable said that, unlike the case of a permanent fire brigade, they did have their firemen making their jump- ing sheets, doing splicing, painting lire wagons, etc. • Mr. Powlesland thought that if they had a permanent fire brigade it would save them the extra pay, and relieve the men of the extra time, and give them a better ehanoe of doing police duty. He would like to see a I permanent fire staff, the same as in many towns of an equal size to Swansea. The Chairman in answer to the Mayor said if they had a. permanent fire bri- gade they would lose the grant which they now received for the police. Mr. Ashmole (Borough Treasurer) regarded the present system as being the cheapest. The Chief Con,t able -said that 99 a month was paid in extra wages to the fire brigade. Seamen's Objection. j Mr. Powlesland took exception to the following passage in the Chief Constable's report: Swan- sea being a seaport town, I find that ac- cording to our crimes records, that a niimbei- of sailors and firemen, who are either convicts or police supervisees, visit the port from time to time, and therefore the supervision, of the police must be greater. Swansea is in rather a unique position, being c terminus and off the main line, and thus affords bur- glars, shopbreakers, and others of the v • criminal fraternity less opportunity of getting away. Otherwise I am afraid we should be very badly treated by this class, and have numerous and serious robberies which, fortunately, we ue not troubled with. At present there are sergeants doing 12 hours at a wretch at various stations, and by the additiqu Qi aaDt?Lex w=AuL-thc duMe? 1 would be distributed by each doing eight hours." Knocked Him Flat. Alluding to the last paragraph, Mr. Powlesland said he did not want to in- j crease any man's working hours, and he did not object to the eight hours. He, however, objected to the statement re- garding the sailors and firemen, and said that since the publication of that statement in the Press, it had caused a great deal of ill-feeling. It was quite a new thing to him. and it had knocked him flat." He had always looked upon the seamen and fire- men as fellows who were only bad to themselves, but not crimi- nals, and the men' s union was very much upeet at the statement in the Chief's report. He wanted to know whether there had been any communi- cation from the Union or from the Swansea Labour Association. The Chairman raised the question of how the report had got out to the Press. It was, he said. 3 private docu- ment, and it was understood to be such. Chief Constable's Reply. The Chief Constable said that it was a confidential report, and he certainly did not supply it. It had no business to get out. At the last meeting he had collected all the copies, and he had no idea of how it had ot into the papers. He .stated that he had two I or three letters on the question raised hy Mr Powlesland, but he had I not replied to them nor did he intend to reply to them unless he was in- structed to do so, because he did not think there ww anything calling for re- ply. At this stage the chairman asked the Preêos not to. give prominence to the discussion, but Mr. Powlesland re- marked "It is too late to suppress it. The report has been in the papers for a week or L-o. In course of further dis- cussion, Mr. Powlesland complained That the statement in the report re- flected on a particular occupation, and now every man thought he was branded as a criminal. It was most unsatis- factory Did Not Refer to Swansea Men. Aid. Miles was sure that if the Chief Constable had known that he would hurt anyone's feelings, he would not have put in sailors and firemen." Aid. Ben Jones: Swansea sailors and firemen are of a. very different class to those at Cardiff. (Hear, hear.) The Chief C&nstahle wished it to be understood that this did not apply to any Swansea men. but only to some who came to the port from time to time. He would have the words "number of men" inserted in his report when it came to be printed instead of tho words objected to. It was subsequently decided that the chairman and the Chief Constable should get, into communication with Mr. Geo. Gunning, of the Sailors' and Firemen's Union. Aid. Devonald did not, think that, taken on the whole, Swansea was un- derpolieed in comparison with other towns. He agreed that certain dis- tricts might be ur.derpoliced. The Chairman You must take the average into consideration. They must take into account the fact that dming I recent years they, as a Watch Commit- tee, had had a number of complaints, and he thought they were agreed that a certain increase was necessary. The question was whether it should be 58 or not. Aid Devon aid suggested a re-arrange- ment oi beats. Decrease in Licenses. Mr. E. G. Protheroe, as an individual member of the committee, would cer- tainly support an increase. They were very badly off in the centre of the town, where men were most wanted. The Chairman wished to express the gratitude of the committee to the Borough Treasurer (Mr. Ashmole) for taking the trouble to prepare his re- port. The Mayor drew attention to the re- cent inspection parade of the force, and expressed his surprise at the poor material in the men's coats and belts. It certainly was not a credit to a town like Swansea. Mr. Molyneux thought it was quite evident that the committee would not a.gree to anything like the increase asked for, an;* he suggested that the mat.ter be deferred to see if the Chief Constable could not re-arrange Ifis figures. Mr. Powlesland contended that there had been a decrease in crime in Swan- sea, and that with the closing of 80 or 90 licensed houses in the last nine or ten years surely relieved the police. Again, owing to reconstruction, super- vision of the licensed houses was much better. He did not want them to think that he was opposed to a policeman as a policeman. No one appreciated the police more than he did. and he thought they had a fine body of men—(hear, bear)—but the people of Swansea were regarding these increases very anxiously because it would mean a very substan- tial increase in the rates. Borough Treasurer and Increased Rates. Mr. Ashmole, in answer to a ques- tion, said that if they decided upon any increases, they would have to go on the rates: it was not correct to sup- pose half would be contributed by the Home Office. The Home Office grant only applied to a certain number. He warned. them that iu the future they would have £ 1,250 to k-1,300 in extra capital charges on the new police station, on the new mot-or fire engine, and on the new motor ambulance. He was anticipating big increases in the estimates of all the committees, and un- less some arrangement could be come to he anticipated increase in the rates. The Chairman (alluding to the Government grant) "That was why by keeping the force so low for the past few years, the cost was so low. Mr. Molyneux said that after hearing what Mr. Ashmole had said he did not think that from the ratepayers' point of view that was the most opportune time for :n- creasing the force. (Hear, heatL On the proposition of Mr. Po--vlt)rland, consideration of the matter was de- ferred.

COMPLIMENTARY SMOKER ATI SWANSEA.

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