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WM. J. QUINN
Chief of Police
San Francisco, California 

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ELIZABETH RICHARDS 
Policewoman, Girl's Detail 
Los Angeles Police Department

Rehabilitate the Juvenile Delinquent!
By William J. Quinn
Chief of Police. San Francisco

The first duty of the enforcement agencies toward the citizenry they are sworn to protect is to stop crime at its source--crime prevention. For peace officers to concentrate their entire efforts on the detection, apprehension and conviction of law breakers is, in effect, akin to locking the barn door after the mare has been stolen.
When one consi ders the appalling number of young people populating out penal institutions--in California alone, 90 per cent of the men incarcerated in prisons are under 24 years of age--one realizes that something must be done to teach impressionable youth that crime does not pay and that the only high-road to lasting contentment is that marked by law and order. 
With that purpose in mind, we in the San Francisco Police Department three years ago inaugurated what we called the "Big Brother Movement." It was out intention to make friends with the under-privileged and delinquent youths--who are, indeed, potential criminals--and to be, in every sense, big brothers to the youth of the city. We felt that if we could win the respect and friendship of these boys and direct their energies into useful, honorable channels, we would do much to dam the stream of youth into penal institutions.
We have succeeded beyond our wildest hopes--juvenile delinquency in San Francisco has markedly decreased since the police Big Brothers swung into action, and we confidently believe that we can look forward to a marked reduction in San Francisco representation in penal institutions.
We have found, in almost every case we have handled of juvenile delinquency, that there is a decided lack of understanding and companionship between the boys and their fathers. Their Big Brothers have filled the need of such boys for a counselor and friend. Boys are naturally her-worshippers and, for lack of another ideal to follow, they are prone to idolize the spectacular and mistakenly glorified gangster, gunman and desperado. We have found that, except in a few rare cases of boys who by some curious mental twist are beyond the hope of redemption, the innate decency of the lads responds to the influence of the Big Brothers when the cause for the delinquency--and, for every case we have found, by careful probing, a cause--has been removed.
The Big Brother Movement redounds to the benefit of both the police and the boys, for, in attempting to live up to the expectations of the boy in his change, the Police Big Brother inevitably betters himself. It is our earnest hope that this movement will spread in every police jurisdiction and to that end, at the convention of the International Association of Chiefs of Police held in Kansas City in September, a Big Brother League was organized, of which league I had the honor of being made Chairman.
Our Big Brother Bureau is, since one year ago, a definite unit of the Police Department, with a permanent detail assigned exclusively to that work. The detail is augmented by many volunteers in the Department, who work on their own time, for between the Big Brothers and their young charges fine friendships have developed which have continued long after the need for a Big Brother is over, but once associated with this heart-warming work, our men are reluctant to relinquish it.
We must, of course, have the cooperation of social agencies, the Juvenile Court and school authorities and that cooperation has been generously given us in San Francisco. However, the challenge thrown by the alarming increase in youthful crime during the past few years is definitely to law enforcement agencies, and it is our direct responsibility as peace officers to answer in such fashion as to save the boys and girls--who are the men and women of tomorrow--to good citizenship.
 Our San Francisco work has not yet been extended to delinquent girls, but in this field, I believe, there is a definite call to women peace officers. Girls, like boys, need a wise and sympathetic hand, and women peace officers, with their broad understanding of the problems of humanity, stand out as fit to lead them.
My message to the Women Peace Officers' Association of California is a plea that they join with their brother officers in saving our young people from juvenile delinquency--the path leading to adult crime.

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