EVERYONE'S FOR

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 18, 21 July 1934, Page 10

EVERYONE'S FOR

NO ROOM FOR GUNMAN

THE CAMPAIGN IN BRITAIN

STAMPING HIM OUT

Britain has not lagged behind in making itself a. hot spot for the gunman; and one of the chief reasons for this is that every law-abiding citizen helps the police in moments of crisis, writes exChief Inspector James Barrett in the "Daily Mail"

When Leonard Rowland Hill ended his career on the Sussex Downs he was one of a long line of gunmen who have finally failed to get themselves out of a tight corner. No hunted English gunman has ever escaped from the police net—death or capture is the fate of every known fugitive once the chase is in full swing.

Speed is now the great asset of the police, and to realise this fact one has only to look back to the fate of Percy Toplis, a gunman who was wanted for the murder of a motor-car* driver near Andover, Hants, in 1920. Pedal bicycles and the telephone were used in the chase and a motor-car that could attain a speed of only forty miles an hour. All the same the police got their man. After firing several times as his captors closed in, Toplis himself was shot dead by the police.

In 1937 P.C. Dainty, a Newark officer, was shot and left lying on the road by a London motorist. The policeman possessed the real instincts of his profession because, before he became unconscious, ho scrawled on a piece of paper the gunman's car number. The gunman was arrested in his London lodgings arid was sent to penal servitude for life. . PROM AMERICA. Occasionally the real gunman, from the United States tries to raise his head in England. It is not so long ago since the members of a gang tried the game in Devonshire. Their short run was not even a merry one, because they were captured on their''first job. Every good policeman shows 'exceptional staying power in, the hunt for & criminal who uses the gun. My men sought no Test in the course of the sharp chase for the murderer of Jacob Dickey, a taxicab-driver, who was shot dead alongside his vehicle in a Brixton side-road;, and when I ..was searching for the murderer of P.C. Gutteridge'my men, again, were fatigue-defying. Everyone knew that the public were behind us in stamping out the gunman menace. _ It is not an easy job to buy firearms in England. There are places abroad where all types of firearms can be bought. But here in this country arms cannot be bought across , the counter. You must give good reasons and be of sound character. In addition, persons possessing firearms in this country are compelled to register them with the police of their district. The police are for ever on the alert to enforce this Act. Some of the bad men of the community carry firearms, but comparatively few have ammunition. The more desperate will fire a shot to avoid capture in. a tight corner: the old'offender is more careful. When he makes a. show of force it is mostly make-believe, and even this gesture is becoming obsolete. Our Judges will no longer tolerate by-play with what are apparently lethal weapons, and the fact that a gun used to incite fear, may be of the toy variety is no longer an. excuse advanced in asking for a lenient sentence. Any weapon used to excite fear is considered wicked. NO FIGHT SHOWN. Of course, in the criminal community there are always types like Frederick Guy Browne, one of the murderers of P.O. Gutteridge. He claimed that the only reason he s did not shoot anyone before ha killed Gutteridge was because his challenge of "Handsup!"was obeyed; Browne was a man capable of any villainy, and although- there are many approximating to his type, fortunately most of them are in prison. Browne was a busy and brainy engineer, as well as a desperate criminal, and he had little us© for criminal associates. He did not drink or smoke, and could generally keep his mind to himself. I suppose it is practically impossible to stop all illicit trading in firearms, but the police at the London docks and the English seaports annually make hauls of these weapons. The smugglers seldom form themselves into gangs, because experience has taught them that the game does not pay. Most of the smuggling is done by. foreigners reselling firearms bought abroad. Of cojirse, criminals sometimes obtain possession of firearms by stealing them from registered owners. I have dealt with many such cases, and when the thieves have been arrested while committing • another offence the weapons have been found in their possession, usually unloaded. In most instances, the thieves presented them at persons to incite fear when making their escape. ...... A TIGHTER NET. .Even in .the short period that has elapsed sineel retired, the path of the gunman has been further hampered. In London and the provinces police transport is ever on the look-out. There are now fifty-two areas in London alone covered -by wireless,, backed by the telephone, the motor-cycle, the push-bicycle—all controlled by policemen whose every action is speeded up by the march of science. With this in mind it is hard to be-' lieve that it is only thirteen years since motor-bicycles and sidecars were placed at the disposal of the senior detective of each London division. Before that, every detective had to utilise the best means of transport he personally could command. And even then the gunman was kept in control. If the police forces could not move very-fast .neither could . the lawbreakers. -But, as-I said before, we always had the public behind us, and when a. gunman broke loose he had to contend against every type of obstacle —all tending to his downfall. Before the police forces really took up the impudent challenge of t he criminals, who roamed the country and flashed or fired revolvers, the motorbandit menace looked .like becoming alarming. Criminals, knew that they could dash from:- place to place, because they were: aware that the police had vehicles, incapable .of- great speed. But it now. seems tome that the more brazen criminals—the few touch ruffians who were prepared' to Knock over pedestrians, ia their wild raids or threaten .with firearms—have been overcome;

Incidentally, many of the gunmen who dre serving penal servitude are comparative youngsters. Their idea of life was that. they could frighten the community into providing them with a comfortable'living and a gopd share of excitement, thrown in. They went' the wayoorfr all people who consider that violence in crime pays. It does not. Most of these people will spend the greater part of' their lives in prison if they do not find some less anti-social outlet for their energies. The old-time criminal planned his "jobs" more alluringly. He travelled by the early morning trains from London to country houses set down for plunder, and when he left tho scene of .his crime he balked, his. pjjrauers by j

simple methods, such as placing staves round, the houses and connecting them with wires; the method was known to the fraternity as'"wiring the ground."' In the dark his pursuers fell over each other. He seldom used a gun, and, presumably because of this, the persistent criminal spent most of his life out of prison. The gunman of his day was—as today—everybody's1 enemy. May I say a last word for my old force? Some people think that Scotland Yard should be honeycombed with scientific departments. There is no necessity. There are experts on every subject—from the Government Laboratories, near the ' Law Courts, to the Arsenal at Woolwich, the Home Office analysts and pathologists, and expert gunsmiths—ready to help tho police against the gunman.

All worked .with me on the P. C. Guttcridge~ case, and I can testify to their unwearying ability, as well as to their intense loyalty to the public as .a whole. '' - ■ -