POLICL   DLPARTMLNT

CITY OF NEW  YORK

OFFICE   OF  THE  POLICE  COMMISSIONER
 

Hon. John F. Hyi,an,

Mayor of the City of New York.

My dear Mr. Mayor :

It is my privilege, once again, to transmit to you the summary and
review of the manner in which the Police Department of the City of New
York performed its numerous and exacting duties, during the year 1921.

The preparation of this report has been hindered because of the state
of chaos in which the operations of the Almirall Grand Jury, the Whitman
Grand Jury, and the Meyer Legislative Investigating Committee left the
records of this Department. Thousands of documents required in making this
report were requisitioned under blanket subpoenas issued by these agencies,
many of which were never returned, leaving great gaps in the important
records of this Department which, in many instances, could not be duplicated
or replaced, and the preparation of this report could not begin until after
tremendous labor. These records were re-assembled and, so far as possible,
reproduced from available data scattered about the Department.

It has always been my conviction that the Annual Report of the Police
Department should be so framed as to make it an effective means of bringing
the citizens of this City and the Police Department into closer relations; to
promote better mutual feeling by promoting better mutual understanding.
Nothing is more destructive to harmony and cooperation than mystery and
misunderstanding, and in the preparation of this Report, I have endeavored
to make plain to all who care to read it, the object, functions and scope of the
Police Department, and the obstacles with which it has to contend, that the
citizens of this City may go about their respective affairs, free from molesta¬
tion and in perfect security.

This same spirit has, in fact, inspired all the Annual Reports that have
been issued by the Police Department, since you placed me in charge of it,
but I lay special emphasis on it, this year, because of the unusual zeal that
certain elements have displayed, in their efforts to misrepresent the activities
of the Police Administration and the Police Department.