He was educated in public schools and was employed in two or three other occupations prior to joining the Municipal Police Department on January 8, 1874.

[1] He was assigned to the "Broadway squad" during the 1870s and 1880s where he and John Price became closely associated with the then head of the Tenderloin district Captain Alexander "Clubber" Williams.

Schmittberger was the only police official to emerge unscathed from the Lexow inquiry; his former colleagues were either allowed to retire or were dismissed from the force, and was called a "squealer" by members of the NYPD.

He became the technical head of the police force in his later career; he was considered a gifted speaker and an excellent organizer as well as a notoriously strict disciplinarian.

Upon news of his death, the flags of all the police stations in New York were ordered to be lowered to half-mast and remained so until his funeral.