Mr. ZIHLMAN. Your record is that respect compares very favorably with other cities.

Mr. HEADLEY. In this particular instance only.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. You mean recovery?

Mr. HEADLEY. Yes, sir. A year or so ago we had 100 per cent in murder cases. We caught everybody, and several more that had gotten away two or three years before.

Now, the late major and superintendent tells about the traffic court. He recommended a traffic court to the commissioners, on account of the great increase in vehicular traffic in Washington, and the resulting increase in traffic cases made by the Metropolitan police shows the need of a police traffic court in which traffic cases may be handled quickly. The creation of a separate traffic court would not only relieve the police court of all traffic business, which it has to handle at the present time, but would result in a great saving of time. Citizens who desire to defend their cases have to wait frequently in the police court some days from 9 o'clock in the morning until late in the afternoon before their cases can be heard, because of the pressure of other police-court business. The long wait for call of cases works great hardships on the police as well as citizens. In some cases men working the night tricks of duty have been compelled to spend their entire day in the court waiting for cases to be called, and therefore have lost a large part or all of their rest period.

Mr. LANHAM. In that regard, what do you think about the statement made by Judge Hardison in reference to the fact that we would have so many courts that you might want a policeman in one court to testify in a case and he would be over in another court busy there, and that by having so many courts a policeman might have so many cases in which he has to testify that you would aggravate the condition by creating further courts, speaking from the policeman's standpoint?

Mr. HEADLEY. Mr. Lanham, I haven't had a criminal case in the courts for a year, because my business doesn't bring me in close association with those cases. I haven't been fortunate enough to arrest a murderer for many years, because I haven't had the opportunity; I haven't been thrown into that line of work.

Mr. LANHAM. Policemen have to testify frequently, though? Mr. HEADLEY. Yes, sir. Now, the motor-cycle man and automobile man go out into the outlying districts-patrolmen in automobiles and bicycle men--and they arrest all kinds of cases, and with all that we ought to have a traffic court, so that these men may not lose their time; and not only that, but that the people who are arrested may not forfeit their collateral because they don't want to waste their time going to court.

Mr. LANHAM. I understand from Judge Hardison's statement that they are likely to lose time by the creation of still another court, by reason of the fact that the policeman who is to testify in the case may be over at some other court testifying in some other case, and the case will have to be postponed or continued on that account. Mr. HEADLEY. Well, sir; when you have 804 policemen doing duty in the street, they won't be in court all the time, because there isn't any court big enough to hold them.

Mr. LANHAM. That was the statement Judge Hardison made, that that was one objection against the establishment of an additional

court.

Mr. HEADLEY. I never saw more than 200 policemen in court. That was on Monday morning when we had two days' work. The major and superintendent approved of the traffic court, and you may get his statement from the records in the Senate committee in the hearings on the traffic court. Mr. Bachelder, of the three A's, testified also.

Mr. SHELBY. Captain, will you permit me one moment? The bulk of arrests made by traffic men are traffic cases, and they could be found in the traffic court.

Mr. LANHAM. Especially under the provisions of this bill, when you are going to have men designated to do that class of work almost exclusively.

Mr. HEADLEY. Yes, sir.

Mr. SHELBY. They do that class of work almost exclusively now. Of course they are required to take cognizance of any other violations of the law.

Mr. LANHAM. But not to be specially on the lookout for other

cases.

Mr. HEADLEY. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919, we had 8,154 speed cases. Those were cases of speeders alone, and that doesn't count fellows that got away, because we are mounted on bicycles competing with steam and electricity in our effort to apprehend a murderer or a criminal in an automobile. Then there were 8,543 traffic cases, making a total of 16,697 cases.

Mr. LANHAM. You spoke this morning about the need of highpowered motor vehicles for the police department. That is really not a matter of legislation at all, is it? That is simply a matter of getting an appropriation?

Mr. HEADLEY. Yes, sir; but I wanted you gentlemen to know just what we are up against and why a great many of these people get away from us. I have ridden a bicycle in the police department for 22 years, and many a one has gotten away from me. that is an average of about 53 cases every day.

Mr. LANHAM. Of speeding?

Now

Mr. HEADLEY. Yes, sir. And in the future if we don't have an improvement we will have a great many more.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. The number of motor vehicles is constantly growing?

Mr. HEADLEY. Yes; and we are not equipped to compete with them. It was demonstrated during the riot that if it had not been for our good citizens and the automobiles from around the Navy, we would have been up against it. People were running along the streets in high-powered automobiles, better equipped than we were at police headquarters, taking pot shots at our citizens passing along the streets.

Now, the total casualties in 1918 were 5,407; in 1919 they were 4,843. The deaths in 1918 were 86, the deaths in 1919 were 76, and the deaths in 1920 so far have been 11, and if we are going to carry that on pro rata we are going to kill 49 more people before the year is over, and the thought occurs to me now, who are the 49?

The serious casualties in 1918 were 87; in 1919, 132.

Minor accidents, such as collisions, in 1918 were 1,733, and in 1919, 1,741.

The total injured in 1918 was 1,906, in 1919 it was 1,949, and the total in 1920 so far is 11. We have had 11 killed so far, 11 seriously injured, 141 minor injuries, 413 property losses, and 13 no damage.

Just at this point I have in police headquarters two maps, one of the District of Columbia just like this map on the wall. I indicate collisions on the streets by different colored headed pins. I have six colors of pins. Red pins indicate deaths to occupants of vehicles of any kind. A white pin indicates injury to an occupant of an automobile or vehicle, and a pink pin indicates death to a pedestrian. A pedestrian may meet death by a steam car, locomotive, or an automobile, or horse and wagon, and those who are injured on the streets as pedestrians I represent them by a yellow pin. The black pins indicate collisions between vehicles, and the green pin shows the utter recklessness and carelessness on the part of the driver, a driver who collides with a lamp-post, a fire plug, a tree box, or fence and there are a great many green pins.

The congested section I have on another map enlarged so that I can use a great many more pins. Now, in December of last year there were 1,479 arrests for traffic violations, and 467 of them were for speeding. In January there were 519 arrests for speeding, and arrests for other cases, traffic cases, 816, making a total of 1,335. In February there were 574 speed cases and 829 other cases, making a total of 1,403.

Mr. LANHAM. Have you any statistics with reference to how many of these were finally disposed of by forfeiture of collateral, and how many by trial or infliction of the penalty prescribed by law?

Mr. HEADLEY. Yes, sir; in 1919 there were 8,543. In 1918 there were 8,154 arrested for speeding, and 5,868 were held. They were tried and found guilty.

Mr. LANHAM. That is a pretty good percentage, isn't it?

Mr. HEADLEY. A very good percentage. And when you consider that there is a preponderance of evidence against the officer, who is alone always, that is a very good percentage.

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Mr. SHELBY. Let me correct you there. Do not get a wrong pression of that. That cases held" means cases where there was either a forfeiture or a conviction. That does not mean 5,868 cases went into court and were tried before the judge; that means that that number of cases were either tried or forfeited collateral.

Mr. LANHAM. Or finally disposed of one way or the other?

Mr. SHELBY. Disposed of either by forfeiture of collateral or conviction.

Mr. LANHAM. Have you the percentage that forfeited collateral and the percentage that went to trial?

Mr. SHELBY. I should say easily 80 per cent were forfeiture of collateral.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. That differentiates between those who were apprehended but the police magistrate did not feel that the evidence or the offense was sufficient to hold them or to justify him in prosecuting the case those figures, do they not?

Mr. SHELBY. No; it means that about 80 per cent of these men put up collateral and did not care to appear.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. I mean the figures given by Capt. Headley.

Mr. HEADLEY. Seven thousand and three hundred and sixty-six are those that go on our records, either forfeited collateral or were tried.

Mr. LANHAM. I understood you gave for 1918 that 8,154 were arrested for speeding, and 5,868 were disposed of either by trial or by forfeiture of collateral?

Mr. HEADLEY. Yes, sir.

Mr. LANHAM. Now, then, the difference between those, does that represent cases which upon more thorough investigation were found to be nonmeritorious and were simply dismissed?

Mr. HEADLEY. Were dismissed; yes, sir. And when you consider that the policeman stands alone out in the road, alone out in the dark, and several persons are occupying the automobile, the preponderance of evidence is against him. Mr. LANHAM. Oh, yes; I know.

Mr. HEADLEY. I understand you, sir.

Mr. LANHAM. I was not asking as any reflection, but I just wanted to know what the difference represents. Having been an old prosecuting officer I can easily understand the policeman's attitude. Mr. HEADLEY. Yes; I looked your record up.

Mr. SHELBY. This fiscal year there were 8,154 arrested; 8,119 were held.

This is 1919.

Mr. HEADLEY. I was giving 1918.

Mr. SHELBY. Well, here is the difference here, the difference between 8,154 and 8,119. Then for purposes of comparison he gives in an adjoining column 5,168 held in 1918. So the difference is not between 8,119 and 5,168; the difference is between 8,154 and 8,119, and that is a very small margin, 21 and 14; 14 nolle prossed and 21 dismissed.

Mr. HYDE (of the Willard Hotel). Referring to the condition on the Avenue in front of the Willard, did you know of the case last fall where one evening somebody came out of the hotel and several of the public vehicles there dashed out to try to get this person for a passenger, and one of them got to going so fast that he couldn't stop at the curb, and he went all the way across the sidewalk at full speed and hit the coping in front of the areaway in front of the hotel and knocked out a portion of it? If somebody had been passing along the sidewalk at that time at that point, a pedestrian, he would undoubtedly have been killed.

Mr. HEADLEY. Yes; and right there, gentlemen, is a serious condition along Pennsylvania Avenue, due to the fact that there are too many there. The supply is greater than the demand; and when a person comes out who may want a Ford, as I said, and high-class cars go out, and somebody else may want a high-class car, and the Fords go out, well, it means obstruction to anybody who may be going or coming across the street. And we have tolerated that, sir. It is not a hack stand, but we have tolerated it in order that these men might not have any chance to complain against the police department or the District of Columbia authorities.

A VOICE. Could I ask a question?

Mr. ZIHLMAN. I don't know whether Capt. Headley wants to

answer.

Mr. HEADLEY. Yes; I will answer it.

A VOICE. Assuming that to be true, do you believe that same condition would exist if the independent taxicab man or hacker—whatever you may term him-had a man standing on the Avenue side who would write a slip and put it in each man's car in turn, as the Federal has on the Fourteenth Street side, and occupy the curb instead of the middle of the street?

Mr. HEADLEY. It may be presumption on my part to say what would happen, and I could not answer for 1,500 vehicle drivers. But I will say this: If at any time it is possible to make any arrangement with the men-it was a proposition made by Maj. Pullman to these 200 men that they have a representative, uniformed properly, indicating that he was a public hack-driver agency; that they might take orders on the sidewalk and call the man whose turn it was, the public-vehicle driver whose turn it was; and I believe the only way to hold these men where they belong and safeguard people on the street is to make them take their turns, whether it is a Ford or a Winton, unless the prospective passenger may specify a certain kind of car. These men ought not to be allowed to leave their stands to go around any neighborhood unless they are going to leave the vicinity; and right now I have a proposition in mind to change the method of left-hand turn at a street intersection in order to hold pedestrians back. I can not do it now until something is done, because it would do the very things that we don't want done around the Willard Hotel, and, of course, they all assemble around the Willard Hotel and the Raleigh.

Now, speaking of that particular paragraph, you ought to include the wharves. You should leave out no place where there is the possibility of a demand for automobiles.

Mr. LANHAM. I asked about that yesterday, and the statement was made by Lieut. Shelby that there was only one here where there was very much demand, and that there was no special congestion there. Mr. HEADLEY. We have had some little trouble down there.

Lieut. Shelby has many duties to perform. At present he is our school-teacher, teaching our men, giving them instructions in 20 days what it took some of us 20 years to get, and I do know of some trouble having occurred around the Norfolk & Washington Steamboat wharf.

Mr. LANHAM. In your opinion this enumeration of places of public accommodation should include wharves?

Mr. HEADLEY. Absolutely; any place where the public might assemble and want to hire a cab.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. What do you know about the complaint that has been made here about the drivers of the Federal Taxicab Co. and the the Terminal Taxicab Co. soliciting fares when they have no license as hackers?

Mr. HEADLEY. I never knew one to do so. If I did, I would arrest him.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. Do you know this man [indicating photograph]? Mr. HEADLEY. Yes, sir: I know that man. This is the Willard Hotel-the Fourteenth Street side, I believe. I think that it is absolutely necessary to have a man of this sort just where he is.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. What is his business?