The Cop on the Beat

In 1938 the Cambridge City Council passed on ordinance calling for a police force of 235 men. Fifteen years later Cambridge still has the same ordinance in its city statutes. The question of whether 235 men can efficiently operate the police force has been causing a furor in Cambridge municipal and political ranks. Chief of Police Patrick F. Ready says it can; almost everyone else agrees it can not.

Ready is a heavy-jowled man who has been chief of police for over three years. During this time his chief antagonist on the question of adequate police service has been a red-headed newspaperman named Eddie Martin, who covers the City Council for the Boston American.

Martin has constantly attacked Ready in his stories, and recently brought enough pressure on the Chief so that the whole issue was aired in a Council meeting, and eventually seven more men were added to the 228 then working. Despite this move, Ready has protested that his force is more than sufficient and that he needs no more men. "We've got adequate service in this city," he says. Referring to the current dispute, he adds, "Don't worry about what you hear, this is an election year and some of the men seeking public office may sound off a little."

"You take Harvard Square," Ready says. "why that's the best policed section of the city. We've got three beat men and a patrol car going through there all the time." Asked how a group of boys could gather on Boylston St. as they did last spring before the Bachelder slashing, he answers, "Of course the officer up there moves those kids all the time. I just can't say why they weren't moved that night."

"We've got plenty of men policing this city, five prowl cars and a staff of close to 235. Our crime rate here is low. I can't give you the exact figures, but we're better than most cities. We've got a good department, good men, and they're doing a good job. Why over in Charlestown prison a lot of the boys will tell you that their biggest mistake was coming to Cambridge."

Neither Martin, nor local Councilman Edward J. Sullivan is so certain of Cambridge's security. Martin argues that the current force is working well under bad conditions. He points to the state of the police force when the ordinance was enacted--"they were all just beat policemen then," comparing it to the current police force. "They've had to take men off the beats for every thing you can imagine. The men checking the meters, the men repairing the meters, the men collecting from meters. They all came off the walks. All the new civilian personnel, switchboard operators, clerks, the motorized policemen, and the men who operate the radios all came off the beats. The detectives, the men on safety patrol, and the men working in the juvenile department all came off the walking beats. They need men to regulate traffic. Now I'm not saying that all these departments aren't valuable and they aren't doing a good job. But all these men have come off the beats, and they haven't had any replacements. In a tight, congested city like Cambridge you need street policemen on beats. In the old days these men had contacts and could tell who pulled what kind of a job. Now the policemen don't have any contacts, and the people don't have the sense of security they used to get from watching the neighborhood policeman."

Both Martin and Sullivan agree that the current beats are all understaffed. "Why on the last watch in the Square there's no one on, and only an occasional prowl car coming through," says Sullivan. "We need 25 more men, and I think we'll eventually get them."