Editing Theodore Roosevelt (section)

===New York City Police Commissioner===
In 1894, reform Republicans approached Roosevelt about running for Mayor of New York again; he declined, mostly due to his wife's resistance to being removed from the Washington social set. Soon after, he realized he had missed an opportunity to reinvigorate a dormant political career. He retreated to the Dakotas; Edith regretted her role in the decision and vowed there would be no repeat.{{Sfn|Brands|1997|pp=265–268}}

[[William Lafayette Strong]] won the 1894 mayoral election and offered Roosevelt a position on the board of the [[New York City Police Commissioner]]s.{{Sfn|Miller|1992|p=201}}<ref>"A Chronology". [[Theodore Roosevelt Association]] [http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/site/c.elKSIdOWIiJ8H/b.9260727/k.7F11/A_Chronology.htm online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304232503/http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/site/c.elKSIdOWIiJ8H/b.9260727/k.7F11/A_Chronology.htm |date=March 4, 2019 }} Accessed December 2, 2018</ref> Roosevelt became president of commissioners and radically reformed the police force: he implemented regular inspections of firearms and physical exams, appointed recruits based on their physical and mental qualifications rather than political affiliation, established [[Meritorious Service Medal (United States)|Meritorious Service Medals]], closed corrupt police hostelries, and had telephones installed in station houses.<ref>Jay Stuart Berman, ''Police administration and progressive reform: Theodore Roosevelt as police commissioner of New York'' (1987)</ref>

In 1894, Roosevelt met [[Jacob Riis]], the [[muckraker|muckraking]] ''[[The Sun (New York City)|Evening Sun]]'' journalist who was opening the eyes of New Yorkers to the terrible conditions of the city's immigrants with such books as ''[[How the Other Half Lives]].'' Riis described how his book affected Roosevelt:

{{blockquote|When Roosevelt read [my] book, he came... No one ever helped as he did. For two years we were brothers in (New York City's crime-ridden) [[Mulberry Street (Manhattan)|Mulberry Street]]. When he left I had seen its golden age... There is very little ease where Theodore Roosevelt leads, as we all of us found out. The lawbreaker found it out who predicted scornfully that he would "knuckle down to politics the way they all did", and lived to respect him, though he swore at him, as the one of them all who was stronger than pull... that was what made the age golden, that for the first time a moral purpose came into the street. In the light of it everything was transformed.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Riis | first = Jacob A | title = The Making of an American | chapter = XIII | page = 3 | publisher = Bartleby}}</ref>}}

Roosevelt made a habit of walking officers' [[Beat (police)|beats]] at night and early in the morning to make sure that they were on duty.{{Sfn|Brands|1997|p=277}} He made a concerted effort to uniformly enforce New York's [[Raines law|Sunday closing law]]; in this, he ran up against [[Thomas C. Platt|Tom Platt]] and [[Tammany Hall]]—he was notified the Police Commission was being legislated out of existence. His crackdowns led to protests. Invited to one large demonstration, not only did he accept, but he delighted in the insults and lampoons directed at him, and earned goodwill.<ref name="Bully Pulpit">{{cite book |last1=Goodwin |first1=Delores Kerns |title=The bully pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of journalism |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781416547860 |url-access=registration |date=2013 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1-4165-4787-7 |edition=First Simon & Schuster hardcover}}</ref> Roosevelt chose to defer rather than split with his party.{{Sfn|Brands|1997|p=293}} As Governor of New York State, he would later sign an act replacing the Police Commission with a Police Commissioner.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.harpersweekly.org/09cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Month=September&Date=6 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070802003017/http://www.harpersweekly.org/09cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Month=September&Date=6 |archive-date=August 2, 2007 |title=Cartoon of the Day |first=Robert C |last=Kennedy |newspaper=Harper's Weekly |date=September 6, 1902 }}</ref>