Nobody loves the park policeman. Or at least anybody who does is keeping quiet about it.

 That’s the way the park policemen feel these days. More than forty bills affecting the Baltimore City Police Department, many of them calling for more pay and less work, have been introduced at the current session of the General Assembly down at Annapolis.

But the park police, a force of sixty five uniformed officers hired by the Board of Park Commissioners to maintain law and order in the. public parks of Baltimore, are as ineligible as private night watchmen to share in any benefits that may come from these forty-odd bills

Likenesses And Un-likenesses

The park policemen can ride on the street cars free, just like the city cops.They wear dark blue uniforms very similar to those of the regular city police. They are empowered by the Police Commissioner of Baltimore City, to enforce all State and city laws within the confines or the city parks. But there the analogy ends.

Even third-grade patrolmen of the Baltimore city force are paid $35 a week. The most that a patrolman or the park police force gets is $25 a week. City policemen work eight hour shifts. Some of the park policemen say they work ten hour a day.

“But what can we do about it?" said one of the park policemen. "They tell us to get out if we don't like it - that there are plenty of others waiting' for our job. We're not hollering for any more pay right now. But we would like to have an eight-hour day.

“And how about a captain?" Normally the park police force consists of sixty patrolmen, four sergeants and one captain. The captain draws a salary of $1,800 a year. Three sergeants get $1,560 a year each, and the fourth sergeant $1,340.

But the first and only captain that the force has ever had, Capt. Frank C. Gimbel, died last July and the vacancy has never been filled. If it were filled by a promotion within the force, this probably would mean pay increases for two members for the sergeant promoted to be captain and for the patrolman promoted to replace the sergeant.

In the absence of a captain, Colonel Frank A. Hancock, director of the Stadium and commander of the Fifth Regiment of the Maryland National Guard, has been acting head of the park police force without any increase in salary.

F. H. Durkee, president of the Park Board, said today that nobody had been promoted to the vacant captaincy, because he thought that the present force could "be improved." He said he had talked to Colonel Hancock about this, but the colonel was busy and didn't seem to be interested. Mr. Durkee added that a new captain undoubtedly would be named before the first of June.

Before a new captain can be named an examination must be held by the City Service Commission to certify a list of eligible applicants for the post. As yet the commission has received no request from the board for such an examination.

The commission did hold an examination recently to obtain a list of eligibles for appointment as patrolman, and the results of this examination bore out the report that plenty of people are waiting for the job. Out of 198 applicants, ninety-two passed both physical and mental examinations. Mr. Durkee said he thought, there were one or two vacancies for patrolmen on the force. There are rarely more than two appointments to the force within one year, according to the City Service Commission.

Mr. Durkee said he understood that the park policemen averaged a forty eight-hour work week, getting time off during the winter months to make up for any overtime they had accumulated during the Summer. He said the present force was not "adequate to patrol the entire park system and the board. was obliged to do the best it could, with the number of men at its disposal.

Some of the park policemen disagreed with Mr. Durkee as to the amount of time they spent on the job, saying they averaged ten hours a day or better. They patrol about 4,000 acres of parks day and night. And because Sundays and holidays are the time when the parks are most crowded, they never have these days off.

They do work a six-day week. however, which gives them a slight edge over members of the regular city police force. The regular police work all seven days of the week, receiving a total of only forty days leave during the year, compared to fifty two days for a park policeman.

In support of the contention that they should work only eight hours a day, some of the park policemen point to Section 609 of the City Charter which states that "eight hours shall constitute a day's work for all 1aborers, workmen or mechanics who may be employed on behalf of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, except in cases of extraordinary emergency. "Of course we're not laborers," said one of the park officers, "but considering how much we get paid I don't think we ought to work more than eight hours. It's not the softest job in the world, specially at night when we have to patrol beats away out in the sticks where there aren't any houses or traffic or anything else."

Fifteen years ago the City Council passed a resolution requesting the Park Board to put its policemen on an eight-hour basis. but the resolution was vetoed by Mayor Jackson when informed that individual members of the Park Board, without taking any formal action, saw no reason for an eight-hour limitation.

At that time the park police were better known. as "park guards." They wore gray uniforms. Park laborers were pressed into service occasionally as park guards. In 1925 the force went I into its present blue uniforms and received permission from the street car company to ride free.

Until 1931 the park police were responsible to district. park superintendents. But that year Captain Gimbel, formerly a park police sergeant. was promoted to be commander of the entire force. Park police headquarters became the captain's office near the Madison Avenue entrance to Druid Hill Park.

Under a State law the park police, as employees of the Park Board, are invested by the Police Commissioner of Baltimore city with the same power and authority enjoyed by other special or private police officers. They may make arrests only on park property. The force averages about 600 arrests a year, mostly for traffic violations.