Thursday, January 28, 2016

What Ottawans were being arrested for in 1911

Came across this the other day, and thought it was kind of interesting, so I thought I'd share. It's a scan from a book I acquired a few years ago but never really read through in any detail until this week. It's a published book of departmental reports by municipal government in Ottawa from 1911, which includes budgets, hirings, status updates, etc. Mildly interesting things, depending on what you're looking for. But the section on the Ottawa Police Department I thought was pretty cool, and in particular, this table which lists all arrests in 1911, month by month.

Click on the photo for an enlargement, and I'll trust that it becomes big enough to view on your screen.


Some of the more curious charges to me are the more obscure ones, such as "furious driving", "incorrigibility", and "seduction". Also interesting are the monthly charges of "insane", and of course, the unforgivable crime of "making noise in house".

Continuing along, here is a chart of the nativity of those people arrested in 1911. Must have been a blitz on Chinese persons in May and October?? Also interesting to see Syria represented.

The next pages show the types of cases heard by municipal court in 1911, with an interesting split of male vs female chargees, and the overall conviction rate.:



More interesting ones here. "Having more than 1 bar in Hotel", "Permitting drunken person to consume liquor in tavern" (heaven forbid), "keeping hogs within city", "neglecting to remove snow and ice from roof", "permitting gambling in billiard-room" (haha), and of course, "riding bicycle at excessive speed".

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