Some time ago Coroner Julius Harburger passed some scathing remarks on the Police department. He said he was tired of sitting in his office and waiting for the police to arrest murderers now at large. Then he cited the case of Elsie Sigel, Samuel Bersin, Joseph Pogano, the unidentified woman of Thirteenth Street, and Joseph Juliano and Michael Millelo, who were killed by “Jack” Vigarato, a saloonkeeper of Harlem. He told also of a woman in whose home on West 110th Street a girl died after an operation. Reminded that he had recounted only six murders, the Coroner remarked: “I can’t think of the other two. They come so fast it’s hard to keep track of them.” “But have the police no clues in all those murders?” the Coroner was asked. “Clues?” repeated Mr. Harburger, “No, not even a suspicion. They ‘haven’t got anywhere,’ as Inspector McCafferty says. “While I am about it, I might just as well tell you that there have been 130 murders in the last two years in which the perpetrators have escaped. Put that down. I say there have been 130 of them. Doesn’t it seem fine for a city of this size to have a police department that can’t catch a murderer unless he handcuffs himself and gives himself up?” Then the Coroner remarked: “In the last twelve months more murders have been committed in this city and more murderers have escaped than in any other place on the face of the globe. Let the police explain that, if they can.” The Stool Pigeon An important link between the police and the criminal is found in the stool pigeon. The old saying that “It takes a thief to catch a thief” was never truer than in its application to what the ward detective calls “the stool.” When a uniformed or plain clothes policeman is assigned to a precinct the first and foremost thing he does is to find out “What he is up against.” In other words, he sets himself to study carefully the situation; he finds out who are the thieves, pickpockets and all round crooks in his bailiwick. Then he seeks out some one of this class he can trust, and forthwith makes a confidant of him. Indeed, he enters into a regular agreement with the “stool” of the district or ward that in return for “inside information” on crookedness he will give him full protection and even immunity from arrest. The work of the stool pigeon is to associate with criminals as a sort of spy, so as to find out all that is worth knowing and even assist them in crime, then report to the ward detective.