100 years ago in Spokane: Police resume their weekly target practice following wartime suspension

The Spokane Daily Chronicle offered this advice for criminals: Obey when a policeman hollers “Halt!”

That’s because Spokane officers were resuming their weekly target practice and were more likely to hit whatever they were shooting at.

The department had suspended target practice during the war when ammo was scarce. Some officers became “sadly out of practice,” said Police Chief W.J. Weir.

Now, however, ammunition stocks were replenished, and every officer would be asked to fire five shots a week on the range.

The chief said accurate shooting was an essential skill for an officer. He did, however, attempt to reassure citizens his officers would not become trigger-happy.

“Resuming target practice is not an intention to make our officers gunmen,” Weir said. “It is not to make them use their guns at every opportunity. It is simply to give them the confidence that comes with the knowledge that they have the ability to shoot straight and fast if the urgent need arises. It protects the public as well as the officer.”

From the labor beat: The secretary of Spokane’s Unemployed Men’s Association charged a Spokane company with fraud.

The company advertised jobs at a British Columbia mine in exchange for a $10 investment in the company’s stock.

The agency took money from 200 men, but none of the jobs materialized. The secretary said he was one of those who had been made a “goat.”