When Carter Harrison II, a Democrat, took office as mayor in 1896, he appointed Joseph Kipley the superintendent (chief) of police. Kipley (pictured) was the president of the Star League, a group of officers who had been dismissed under the previous Republican administration. These officers now expected to get their jobs back, in spite of a new state civil-service law that was supposed to prevent such political hiring.

After months of waiting, the deposed Democrat policemen finally saw Kipley taking action on their behalf in the summer of 1897. He took his first step in June, demoting or discharging officers who were perceived as being Republican, while promoting those loyal to him. The Chicago Tribune observed an ethnic pattern to Kipley's actions: "The discharged or reduced men, with hardly an exception, show by their names they are of American or English birth, while with as few exceptions, the officers put in their places are Irish."

Kipley showed up at roll-call at the detective headquarters at the Central Station and read the riot act to the men there, telling them they'd have to show themselves worthy of their jobs "or a cyclone would sweep over headquarters and carry all before it."

An old detective told the Tribune: "One thing the chief neglected to mention, was that he has transferred from headquarters to outlying stations nearly every old and time-tried policeman who knew the thieves and held them in check. In their places he has placed political favorites, men who know practically nothing about police business. The reign of crime has only just begun."

It was known last spring that appointments were supposed to be regulated by a new civil-service law, operating under the direction of a commission, but all the politicians said that this law would be shelved in no time.

The applicants believed it. Dozens of them refused to take the examinations so as to be placed on the eligible list. They were advised by some of the city officials that they could get jobs without going through the examination mill. So they waited, and most of them are still waiting. The law may not have made a complete reformation in the service already, but it has stood as a barrier against the wholesale jobbing of salaried places by the machine bosses.

Many of the applicants determined to take the examinations. They went to outlying schoolhouses in droves and sat at child-sized desks and puttered over examination papers, just as they had done twenty years before, some of them. To others it was a new experience.

Imagine the practical "boy" of politics suddenly hauled into a room and compelled to answer such questions as the following:

Where is the city hall?
What railroads lead to Pullman?
Solve four-elevenths of six-nineteenths.
Name eight presidents of the United States.

Imagine would-be hauling inspectors, compelled to answer questions as to mechanics, construction, sanitary plumbing and the like! In short, imagine outsiders slipping in, through this pernicious system, and getting the jobs intended for the boys who had marched and shouted.

Kipley later asked the Civil Service Commission for a list of 435 experienced patrolmen to fill vacancies. "My idea is to have the 435 new men sworn in ready for active duty before the men marked for dismissal are dropped. In that way no inconvenience will result from the change," he said.

He issued General Order No. 32 on October 26, firing eight desk sergeants, two detective sergeants, two patrol sergeants and 393 patrolmen. He also forced three desk sergeants, one detective sergeant and twenty patrolmen to retire on pensions.

" 'Order No. 32' announced the decapitation to the victims," the Tribune reported. "It also brought joy to the hungry horde of Star leaguers, who have grown faint, tattered, and torn waiting to step into the shoes of Republican policemen. The order was one of the most remarkable ever issued by any Chief of Police and its effect will be marked."

When the list of those losing jobs was posted at noon, many of the fired officers quit on the spot, turning in their stars and sitting down in cigar stores or saloons — watching as the traffic they had been directing a few minutes ago took care of itself.

The newly fired officers formed their own league, the Republican City League, but Mayor Harrison wasn't interested in hearing their pleas for jobs.

"I am simply carrying out my promises made during the campaign to correct the injustice done Democratic policemen by Republican administration," Mayor Harrison said. "Out of the 1,100 members of the Star league only 300 have been reinstated. Every man put back is an experienced officer with an excellent record. They are all good men and will make efficient police officers."

The officers fired by Kipley included almost every Swede, Norwegian and Dane on the police force, so Kipley soon faced protests from Chicago's Scandinavians. And not all of the Star Leaguers were happy with his actions — after all, as many as 1,000 of them had not been rehired. And it wasn't just Republicans who were angry at Kipley. Chicago's Democratic aldermen were mad that he had fired some 200 Democratic police officers, and they demanded that he reinstate them.

"A policeman’s lot is not a happy one," the chief’s friend replied.

Some of Kipley's personnel changes had to be revised. He had fired most of the men involved in the Luetgert investigation, but allowed them to continue serving — at least until Luetgert's second trial was over. Some of the Star Leaguers who had bad records were fired again. And the city counsel determined that an old Chicago law prevented Kipley from moving the newly hired men into positions higher than patrolman.

The city's Civil Service Commission refused to cooperate with the Senate investigation. Meeting on its own without help from the Senate, the commission announced it was firing sixty-nine of the Star League policemen Kipley had hired.

Before Kipley brought these men back onto the force, they had been dismissed for reasons including "neglect of duty and immoral conduct and conduct unbecoming an officer," "leaving his post while on duty, without permission," "intoxication," and "for entering a place where intoxicating drinks were sold."

Despite the lack of cooperation, the Senate panel went ahead with its investigation.

As an example of how hirings and firings in Chicago were political, the Senate committee cited the example of W.D. Darst, a professional cook who had worked at the Chicago House of Correction for many years. "His recommendations were of the highest character; he had taken the Civil Service examination and had passed satisfactorily."

The talkative police chief did not need to be prodded into making damaging statements.

The first part of his testimony concerned a "book scheme," which critics described as an effort by the police to shake down business owners.

The scheme had its roots in early 1897, when Policemen’s Benevolent Association treasurer Billy Dollard had come to Kipley for help because of his association's financial problems. The association had lost $12,000 because of the Dreyer bank failure, and Dollard suggested holding two or three "sparring matches" to raise some money. "We went upstairs to talk with the mayor about it, and the mayor did not approve of the idea, did not think it was proper for policemen to be mixed up in sparring matches," Kipley testified.

Looking for other ways to raise money, Kipley talked with Walter Magnus, a Democratic central committeeman who had been appointed as a bailiff at the East Chicago Avenue police station. Kipley suggested publishing a book about the police and giving the proceeds from book sales to the Policemen’s Benevolent Association. "I did not want the police department to have anything to do with the book arrangements at all," Kipley said.

"The evidence further shows that ... policemen were in there, and, in many instances, indulged in the game," the report stated. The police chief's brother had been at all of these places and many others, seen "behind the counter, keeping tab of the amount of money received and paid out with the cashiers of those gambling institutions."

The Senate also accused the Chicago police of allowing opium dens to stay open.

"The evidence... shows that there were more hold-ups and robberies, more violations of the law on the streets of Chicago, during the past six months, possibly, than ever in the city of Chicago in the same length of time," the report asserted. "It is not strange, however, that when the ordinary policeman can see that gambling and many other forms of vice are winked at other violations of law and have less respect for the enforcement of the law than he would otherwise."

Sources
Raphael W. Marrow and Harriet I. Carter, In Pursuit of Crime. The Police of Chicago: Chronicle of a Hundred Years, 1833-1933 (Sunbury, Ohio: The Flats Publishing Company, 1996), 252-253, 255.
Senate Report on the Chicago Police System as made by the Committee of Investigation Appointed by the 40th General Assembly, Special Session 1897-98. Adopted by the Senate Feb. 17, 1898. (Springfield, Illinois: Phillips Bros., State Printers, 1898), 7-9, 11, 13, 14, 15-17.
Chicago Tribune, April 26, May 2, June 20, July 12, Aug. 13, Oct. 23, 27 and 29, Nov. 2, 1897; Jan. 7, 9, 14, 28 and 30, Feb. 7 and 24, March 6 and 11, 1898.
Chicago Chronicle, Jan. 24 and Feb. 13, 1898.
Chicago Inter Ocean, Oct. 5, Nov. 7 and Dec. 31, 1897; Jan. 12, 14 and Jan. 27, 1898.
Chicago Times-Herald, Sept. 19, 1897.
Chicago Record, Oct. 1, 1897.
Chicago Journal, Oct. 28, Nov. 4 and 5, 1897.
Chicago Dispatch, Nov. 26, 1897.
Chicago Daily News, Dec. 10, 1897.