In 1925 A New York Police Chief Proposed Paying Cops Extra To Kill Criminals

Across the country complaints are rising against police officers using excessive force against alleged criminals. So it probably would not be politically correct today to make a suggestion that cops get paid extra to kill criminals. But that didn’t stop one top cop 90 years ago from making that proposal.

Second Deputy Police Commissioner George S. Dougherty c .1912

In January 1925 George S. Dougherty former NYPD Second Deputy Commissioner and Chief of Detectives wrote to the New York Times recommending that large bounties be paid to police officers who kill hold-up men.

Dougherty suggested that a police officer killing one hold-up man be paid $1,000, $2,500 for killing two and the astounding sum of $5,000 for killing three. This bounty would mean a regular patrolman could earn substantially more than the $2,500 annual base salary for killing a robber.

Though many citizens may have agreed and responded positively to the Chief’s populist proposal, it never gained any momentum. The New York Times commented that “of course no one goes into mourning when one of these land pirates meet the fate they deserve as enemies of the human race, and if a policeman in the exercise of his duty kills one of them it properly is regarded as a good job, well done. But Mr. Dougherty’s proposal is a very bad one.”

Several officials at the police department concurred with the Times opinion saying that if Dougherty’s suggestions were put into force, “they might incite indiscriminate shooting.”

Other positions advocated by Dougherty included: deportation of aliens after conviction of a crime; the fingerprinting of all aliens; the total elimination of the revolver through Federal legislation and the restoration of the whipping post for first offenders.

The failure of the bounty proposal did not affect the way some policemen were rewarded within the department. On May 7, 1926, traffic patrolman Louis Schaeffer was shot at by a hold-up man at Broadway and 66th Street. He returned fire wounding the hold-up man Joseph Butler with 5 shots. The next day Officer Schaeffer was promoted to second grade detective with a $500 pay raise.

George S. Dougherty died of cancer at the age of 67 July 16, 1931.