If a police detective doesn't make arrests and
send a man to jail every once in a while there is no
conclusive way for his superiors to be sure he isn't loafing.
There are a very large number of persons who go into the
detective business for the same reason that others enter the
ministry--they can't make a living at anything else, Provided
he has squint eyes and a dark complexion, almost anybody feels
that he is qualified to unravel the tangled threads of crime.
The first resource of the superannuated or discharged police
detective is to start an agency. Of course, he may be first
class in spite of these disqualifications, but the presumption
in the first instance is that he is no longer alert or
effective, and in the second that in one way or another he
is not honest. Agencies recruited from deposed and other
ex-policemen usually have all the faults of the police without
any of their virtues. There are many small agencies which do
reliable work, and there are a number of private detectives in
all the big cities who work single-handed and achieve
excellent results.
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