Summary

In May of 1895, Roosevelt was sworn in as New York City police commissioner and he stormed into office bright-eyed and bristly-tailed "like a boy on roller skates," as one observer noted. He literally ran up the stairs of city hall, pulling ace reporter Jacob Riis along with him as well as Lincoln Steffens. Reform was at the top of Roosevelt's agenda, and he was tutored in the minutiae and mechanics of serious urban poverty—and its links to crime—by Steffens himself after writing a series of reports on the situation. Impressed by the credentials of both newspapermen, Roosevelt befriended them and allowed them into his inner circle of political advisers and supporters. Riis took Roosevelt on a series of police inspections between midnight and 4 a.m. so Roosevelt could get an idea of how responsible the men...