DC POLICE MAKING ARRESTS AT A DIZZYING PACE
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On March 20, 1926, The Evening Star reports that according to the District of Columbia superintendent of police, Edwin B. Hesse*, if current trends continue "a fifth of the District's total population will have been arrested" by the end of the year.
16,414 persons have been arrested in the months of January and February 1926. About half were for traffic violations while 590 were felonies.
At this pace, Major Hesse estimated there will have been nearly 100,000 arrested by midnight New Year's Eve.
Major Hesse describes the arrests are being made, even into March, at a "dizzy pace."
*Major Edwin B. Hesse worked as stenographer, property clerk & secretary before serving as Metropolitan D.C. Police Superintendent from October 1925 to April 1929.
SOURCES
"Edwin B. Hesse, Major and Superintendent (October 1925-April 1929)," www.mpdc.dc.gov/
"Police Will Arrest Fifth of Population By End of Year at Present Dizzy Rate," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., March 20, 1926, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
