European Police Systems

In 1913, at the invitation of the Bureau of Social Hygiene, the writer undertook an investigation of municipal police arrangements in Europe. While the Bureau of Social Hygiene is primarily concerned with the problem of commercialized vice, it was felt by the directors that this phenomenon is so intimately connected with the whole question of police organization and method that intelligent suggestions regarding its control must be based upon a thorough understanding of the factors which contribute to an efficient police force. It was felt, too, that quite apart from the relations of the police to prostitution, a study of the methods by which Europe handles her police problems would be of large benefit in the inevitable reshaping of the police departments of America. On this errand, therefore, the writer spent nearly a year in Europe. The cities visited included London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paris, Lyons, Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Dresden, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne, Vienna, Budapest, Rome, Brussels, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.2