Kreml's Courses

Ten years ago a fresh, good-looking, young cop sat astride his motorcycle in the city of Evanston (pop. 68,000), Chicago's strait-laced North Shore suburb. On his mind were two things, the Law, which he was studying at night, and the violators of Law. Of the latter, most interesting to him were violators of automobile ordinances. With a flair for order, exactitude and investigation he was soon stepping full stride into an almost unexploited field. Last week the same young man, now Lieut. Franklin Martin Kreml, 34, of the Evanston Police Department, organizer of Accident Prevention Bureaus in 15 U. S. cities, opened the sixth Northwestern University Traffic Officers' Training School,* both bureaus and schools being his own invention from the motorcycle days in Evanston.

Lieutenant Kreml, son of a Chicago packer and politician, formulated the theories behind the Accident Prevention organizations now established throughout the U. S. These are: 1) "Lawbreaking of any kind can be reduced by punishing the lawbreakers swiftly and surely," 2) "By enforcement of the Law the police of any city can reduce fatal and nonfatal accidents."

After two years on the force, Evanston let him install his own bureau, instruct brother officers in his methods of checking accidents. So loyally did his city stand behind him that, in spite of an increase in automobiles, Evanston's motor death rate in nine years dropped from 21.8 per 100,000 to 2.9. In 1932 Kreml organized what later became Northwestern's Traffic Safety Institute in which police officers from all parts of the U. S. enroll in two courses, one general course of two weeks, the other a full university term from October to June. The short course deals with accident investigation, reports and records, traffic legislation, pedestrian control, and drunken-driver control. The nine-month training covers all this with such additions as public speaking, vehicle inspection, traffic engineering and criminal law. Practical demonstrations and problems are worked out on the streets of Evanston.

When the police-students return to their homes they instruct others. Most graduates are promoted to head safety squads or local accident bureaus. Best recommendation of the Kreml teachings are that reports from nine cities where bureaus were established last year show a drop in accident fatalities ranging from 10% to 33%.

Of the $75,000 each year it takes to run Northwestern's Traffic School, the automobile industry supplies $25,000; the Kemper Foundation (insurance) $10,000; Northwestern University $5,000 and campus quarters; the balance comes from the International Association of Chiefs of Police whose safety division is also supported by the motor industry. Kreml, still an active lieutenant on the Evanston force, is permanently detailed on professor's salary to the school. Long abandoned is the motorcycle; Lieutenant Kreml drives a Terraplane to school through the streets he helped make safe.

*Other T.O.T. schools: Harvard, Penn. State, Purdue, Tennessee, Rutgers, Alabama, Maryland--all sponsored by the Safety Division, International Association of Chiefs of Police, headed by Lieutenant Kreml.

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