On May 28, 1914, Isaac Kinsey, a member of the Toledo Charter Commission, introduced a resolution calling for a "bureau of municipal research." Kinsey's bureau, consisting of five mayoral appointees serving without compensation, would investigate city departments and offices in order to determine "the efficiency or the non-efficiency with which the work of the city is being carried on." It would then make its reports available to the public.

In November 1914, the Charter of the City of Toledo was approved, and with it the Commission on Publicity and Efficiency was established. It expanded Kinsey's original proposal. The new commission would, besides investigating city departments for their efficiency in rendering public service; make semi-annual reports; make recommendations to the city council; publish reports in the city journal; acquire information pertaining to the "improvement of civic conditions;" to edit and print municipal reports and documents; and to act as an information-gathering body for the city. The Toledo City Journal was to be the official journal of record for the city, and the Commission was to be responsible for its production.

 

In September 1975, Toledo voters adopted an amendment to the city charter that effectively dissolved the Commission as of January 1, 1976, and the members met for the last time on November 20, 1975. The Commission's historical records were divided between the University of Toledo Library, Toledo Public Library, and Bowling Green University Research Center. When the Commission on Publicity and Efficiency disbanded in 1975, a portion of its library and records were brought to the University of Toledo Library - The Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections
 

The photos included before were part of the Commission on Publicity and Efficiency's collection and were donated to the Toledo Police Museum by the Bowling Green University Research Center for Archival Collections.