POLICE AND WOMEN

Hokitika Guardian, 21 May 1920, Page 1

POLICE AND WOMEN

1 ' NEW YORK, March 22. The New York City Police Department was thrown into turmoil and the public, was shocked by the indictment yesterday of Mr Augustus Drum Porter, third deputy police commissioner (that is, a divisional superintendent) on a statutory charge of neglect ol duty. The indictment is the result of an independent investigation by the County Prosecutor on vice conditions, upon allegations that immoral women enjoyed immunity from the police. Mr Porter was a lieut-colonel of the -12ui Regiment. He is a veteran of the SpanishAmerican War, married, wealthy, and a member of several clubs. It is alleged by two plain-clothes' constables that they found him with an unnamed woman in a so-called disorderly flat in November, that he identified lUmself as their superior, and ordered them not to make any arrests. Later, the constables say, they reported the details to their district inspector, after which they were removed from the plain-clothes detail and sent to do patrol work in an outlying dis r Mr Porter has been automatically suspended from duty pending the outcome of the case, which his lawyers declare is a malicious attempt to discredit him on false testimony directed at the Police Department more than at the individual, and resulting from illfeeling between the prosecutor’s office and the police. _______