Science Fights The Crook

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 66, 19 March 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

Science Fights The Crook

NO other profession in America is moving forward as swiftly as law enforcement. Almost over? night, as a result of the growing co-operation between crime-fight-ing organisations, their eagerness to serve and their desire for education, those entrusted, with the public safety are winning a world-wide pre-eminence. Before ]on» the avcrag-e law-enforce-ment officer of America will he ahle to give Shcrlock Holmes any handicap and boat him at his own game. The new Sherlock Hojmes is not an imaginary being who picks "deductions" out of thin air; for that reason, our modern investigator is nrucli more valuable than Conan Doyle's famous character would be if he were a real person. There is no such thing as a "fiction detective" in real life. Sherlock Holmes would have been nest to useless in actual cases, because the criminals against whom Sherlock pitted his wits were, in turn, imaginary. Once the imaginary detective had ferreted them out as culprits, they always gave up the ghost. There were no criminal alliances of venal politics, which use everything from pressure to actual intimidation to srain freedom for a friend in need. There were no professional perjurers to testify falsely to an alibi. There were no monetarily pliable "experts" to lie from the witness stand. There were no conscienceless attorney-criminals, eager to advise the crimester both before and after arrest and to resort to foul methods to ensure his freedom. And tliere were no gaolers willing, for a price, to be hit lightly over the head with a piece of iron, and remain "unconscious" long enough to aid the "flight" of the desperate man who had just "escaped." Those things seldom happen in fiction. But, unfortunately, they occur too often in real life.

8y... ], Edgar Hoover

Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation

Therefore, law enforcement must be ready to battle with all these means of easy freedom, most of which occur after arrest. To that end. science is being called upon more and more by law enforcement everywhere in an effort not only to effect the capture of a wanted man, but, what is more important, to secure his conviction. To-day, the chase of a wanted criminal is conducted along two distinct lines. One is the old and familiar process based on the formula, "from information received." The other is a scientific building up of tiny bits of information having to do with the wanted man's habits, his like 3, his dislikes, his mode of living, his range of acquaintances —in short, a life directory of his every action, thought and mannerism, which will naturally narrow the circle of search. Beyond this, however, there is the builidng up of evidence which cannot be controverted in Court. In the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for instance, there is maintained what is known as the Technical Laboratory. The resources and facilities of this laboratory are at the command of law-enforcement officers everywhere, and. day by day, the calls upon it grow heavier. Here one may obtain impartial, scientific reports on anything from hand-writing comparisons to highly complicated bio-chemical questions. The sheriff of the most thinly populated area in America thus has the same assets of science at his disposal as the Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And when a test points to the guilt or innocence of any person,

a Government expert is furnished to give impartial and unbiased testimony without cost to the local community. Since the inauguration of this laboratory only a few years ago, its uses have expanded more than a hundredfold. Law-enforcement bodies throughout the United States which never before had made use of science, now understands its benefits thoroughly. It is even possible, through the application of science, to determine just how lightly a gaoler was "hit on the head" by desperate criminals who had bribed him for their freedom and had arranged an "attack" to eovcr their "break." There was the investigation, for instance, which a special agent conducted in the escape of a notorious

criminal from a certain gaol. The liars of the cell had been sawn from within, but the scientifically trained special agent discovered some fine, evenly spaced marks in the gray paint of the bars. By other scientific methods he determined that these marks could not have been made by anyone working within the cell. The result was that I he started a search for the wrench ■which had made these marks —and found it in a. gaoler's desk. The latter j confessed that he had helped the i prisoner to break off the bars when they were nearly sawn through—and went to prison for his help in the escape. A few years ago, chemical laboratories played little part in the capture and conviction of criminals. To-day, there

is hardly an important case in -which, science has not contributed at least half of the evid«icc. Use of finger-printing, of moulage. determination of types of human blood, matching of the hair of a victim with a hair found on an accused person or at the scene of the crime, tracing down of dust particles found in the cuff of a suspected man's trousers, thus placing him at the scene of crime —things like this are becoming matters of routine. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is proud to lead the way in this growth of scientific crime detection. More and more through the use of science, the guilty are being exposed and the innocent absolved. The bureau takes pride in the fact that through the use of science it had freed many innocent persons who otherwise might have been forced to stand trial. In one case, an Eskimo boy and an cx-convict were both suspcctod of a murder in Alaska. Both had been found near the scene of the crime. Both carried guns of the same calibre as the dentil bullet. The ex-convict's clothes wee blood-stained. Suspicion naturally pointed to him. But the bureau's experts, thousands of miles from the scene of the crime, proved that t!ie stains were those of animal 11!.><w 1 and that the convict '- gun had not fired ; lie fatal bullet. It had come fr -m the sun of the Eskimo boy, who later c nfe=sed. In another case—a hurgl ny —several men were suspected. The r-al culprit was found through use of th* spectograph and discovery of certain metal fragments on the blade of a knile owned by one of the suspects. The=e nieta fragments proved that the knife _ia been used to cut a. screen in the o" 11 * ing and labelled the knife's owner a=, a participant in the burglarySherlock Holmes, would ; have been proud of snch achie\ ernents. e are law-enforcement officers e\ Clat r d - W i£ la«t in the use made in the la.t ie Scien ce can No community can count not w ,rd . d ! ° o^" ff ]aw . e enforcement machinery pr ?h the necessarr appropriations -or th'e latest and best in scientific crimefighting machinery. A