Prowler Prompts City Councilmen To Recall All Inactive Patrolmen

Cambridge's itinerant prowler drew the attention of the city fathers at Monday's City Council session, as one councilor claimed that the man's identity was known to police. Several measures to increase police protection were passed at the meeting.

But a proposal by Councilor Joseph A. DeGuglielmo '29 to investigate the need for a Public Safety Commissioner to head the Fire and Police Departments was turned down by a 7-2 vote.

Councilor Alfred Vellucci, who claimed that some of his relatives and friends have been molested by the mysterious assailant, gained approval of a motion to place all the city's inactive policemen and 15 prowl cars on night duty "until such time as The Prowler has been apprehended."

Later in the meeting, Councilor DeGuglielmo made his proposal for the appointment of a Council committee to investigate the need for a Public Safety Commissioner. He gave as the reason for the proposal "a growing disrespect for law and a recent laxity in law enforcement."

He explained that the committee may find no need for such a post and conclude that the Police and Fire departments could remedy the situation. Or, he suggested, it may find a need for the appointment of "someone who has not waxed fat on Civil Service, an ex-F.B.I. man or Marine sergeant who could whip some discipline into the police."

Ex-mayor Edward J. Sullivan was one of the councilors opposing DeGuglielmo and defending the police. He said that the police know The Prowler's identity and have visited his hangout several times, but that the man, who broke into several Cambridge homes recently, has eluded them on each occasion and now has skipped town.

In rebuttal, DeGuglielmo said he had not referred to a crime wave, but merely to a letdown in law enforcement. He criticized Sullivan, whose motion for 15 more policemen had just been passed and who now said the police could adequately handle the situation. "That's the kind of reasoning I have to put up with in this Council," he said.

But most of the councilors felt that the appointment of a Public Safety Commissioner would be wasted expense, and Mrs. Cornelia K. Wheeler, recently elected C.C.A. endorsee, was the only councilor to back DeGuglielmo's proposal