1732 VETOES.

I have consulted Police Commissioner Robert F. Stanton in
regard to these matters and, as it is my intention to cooperate
wholeheartedly for the best interests of police administration,
I considered it necessary to prevent any innovation which
would threaten the proper functioning of the agencies charged
with the enforcement of law.

Any outside interference with the powers and authority of
the Commissioner in the administration of the Department
would tend to break down the morale of the Department and
any special privileges granted to those who have, for one
reason or another, been separated from the service is unfair
to those members of the Department who having adhered to
the rules and regulations have remained in the service of the
Department.

Accordingly, I am vetoing all of these bills.

The following comment in connection with Chapter 115
(Senate Bill 186), Chapter 412 (Senate Bill 387), Chapter 513
(House Bill 196), Chapter 532 (House Bill 438) and Chapter
625 (House Bill 604), to grant pension allowances to former
members of the Police Department of Baltimore City is made
to indicate clearly the policy which must be followed if the
purpose and intent of the pension laws are to be preserved.

The general law provides that members of the Police De-
partment may be retired after sixteen years' service and found
to be incapacitated for duty. Previously twenty-years' service
was required, but the law was amended to reduce the period to
sixteen years. All of the pending measures are special acts
and seek to give pension allowances to men who have not
served for the legal period. Accordingly, to sign these
measures would be to depart from the stated policy in this
respect.

Among the measures is one which would seek to grant a
pension to a man for a disability which allegedly occurred
approximately thirty-five years ago. Another case concerns
that of an officer, the claim of whose survivors is that his death
resulted from injuries received in the performance of his
duties. However, the certificates of death and of the attending
physician establish an entirely different cause of death.

Another enactment would make one-half of the pension pay-
able in the name of the officer and the other half to his wife.
This is a marked departure from the established procedure in
pension cases.

I invited Commissioner Stanton to express his comments
upon the measure and he definitely advises that all of the pen-