The records consist of reports from precinct captains (or other police officers) to the Superintendent of Police or, after 1904, the Inspector of Police regarding various matters as indicated in the series descriptions below. Also included is correspondence to and from the Inspector of Police. The records are clearly fragmentary and limited exclusively to non-violent offences against municipal regulations having to do with such matters as business permits, sanitary conditions, accidents to pedestrians, the condition of streets and public buildings, and, of particular interest, saloons, brothels, and houses of prostitution. Series 1, for example, is limited almost exclusively to reports from Precinct Captains to the Superintendent either recommending or denying the waiver of buisiness permit fees, generally to certain peddlers or small business operators for whom the permit fee would be a financial hardship.