LESSENED CRIME.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1920, Page 10 (Supplement)

LESSENED CRIME.

'FRISCO'S FIRST SIX MONTHS OF PSOHIBITION. The San Francisco Chronicle of July 2G states:— Though the first six months under the Eighteenth Amendment have seen the arrest in San Francisco of about 500 violators, which is at the rate of WOO a year, we shall hardly be able to say that this counter-balances a drop of more than 15,000 in the number of arrests for drunkenness in this city for the last fiscal year, as compared withthe previous twelvemonth.. We are rather staggered by the figures in the annual report of the Police Department. It has been obvious to everyone on the streets that drunken men have been less conspicuous in this arid era, but we are hardly prepared for an announcement that only 1814 persons were arrested for drunkenness in the last year, as against 71,354 who reeled into the arms of the law in the year before. It is notorious that powerful waters are to be had, the arrests for bootlegging indicate a large traffic/ there is a world of talk of home brews; but, at any rate, this conditions sems not to produce the public drunkenness that marked the wet old days. The Police Department finds itself unable to ofFer any other explanation than prohibtion for this falling off in arrests for intoxication, a falling off that also extends to arrests for most other classes of offences. We find that the total number of arrests for all offences was 26,673, while in the year before it ran to 49,047, and in the year before it ran to 47,813. It is in keeping with the record of lessened drunkenness that the arre'sts for begging, battery, petty larceny, robbery, and assaults all show a heavy falling off. There is a text in eadi one of these, but a different sort of text in the roll of burglars. This year saw 471 of these gentry arrested, although there were only 460 in the year before. It should be noted; though, that the record of arrests for this offence is no guide to the number of burglars committed. Wc are unable to say just what this increase in the number of captured burglars means. Perhaps the police have grown more efficient, perhaps the porchclirobers are not so brave without Dutch courage. Still another text may he found in the increased number of drug peddlers talcen. Hero, again, there are alternative explanations. Maybe the down and outers, denied of their grog, have taken to dope; perhaps the law is more active. The conclusions to be drawn from police reports in this city are reinforced by a study of figures compiled by the Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, Work-, house and Inebriates' Asylum. These show a very similar falling off in arrests for drunkenness and the crimes that are , commonly associated with over-indulg-ence in strong waters.