The Press. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4,1883.

Press, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5329, 4 October 1882, Page 2

The Press. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4,1883.

Thsbb. baa been mueh7 conflict of opinion lately as to the expediency or the propriety of tha police authorities employing constables in plain clothes for the,detection of crime. It is, in fact, there is a~gre&c »Ban6*ut) eluu-fej*biah sides. TJaere are certain kwdstof offences which may be summed up for the most part under the term " larriMmsm," but which include some grayer crimes, notably outrages on females, that cannot be detected or suppressed except by the agency of secret police. It is perfectly hopeless for Constable O'Houlighan or Sergeant MePhaddy, whom everybody in the place knows by sight in, his conspicuous uniform, and who can be heard the whole-length of a street off, with his creaky boots and his' rnar|al tread, to attempt to catch the cunning scoundrels who assault females, waylay eeHtary passengers, or terrify peaceful citizens by lawless, and disgusting conduct. An long as the detection of crime depends on the efforts of these vigilant and; intelligent, but far too wall known officers, crime will be rife and tire public will be practically unprotected. The only way to deal with crime of that sort is to | set an unexpected watch upon tho offenders, and to track them unerringly | through the agency of persons who havei appeared totheir eyes more suitable to be victims than likely to be avengers. As j for the notion that this system is unmanly, un-English, and all the rest of it, we regard all that as the sickliest of false sentiment. We look upon the larrikin, the assailant of females, the street bully, the footpad, simply as a foul and ruthless animal, who. is to be bunted down and got rid of by all and every means. He holds no faith With society, and society cannot afford to hold any faith with him. He works in darkness and in secret, and in darkness and secret must he be ciseumvented. We know of so toils too subtle, no devices too delusive, to be righteously resorted to in bringing such scoundrels to justice. Let those who think differently consider for a moment what the alternative is. It is that we are to lay aside our peaeeablb and essentially manly habits of lifa, the result of a sense of security and a respect for law, in order to adopt the habits ef disorderly and semi-civilised communities where the law has only the hold. Men are to carry revolvers, kniv or "life preservers," and women and; children are to be kept indoors; andl when a conflict does take place, blood id to be shed as a matter of course. W«j greatly prefer the other system, and wa, deny that there ia any evil iv it at ell aa far as its principle $3 concerned, The most effectual way of suppressing crime Es also the most merciful way; and it la infinitely better for the criminals themselves, as well as for the public, that crime should ba prerented by the secret discovery of its sources, than that it should be allowed to beeorae rampant and then '*!», suppressed by violence. On the other hand, it is quite manifest that the employment of eonrtablea in pkin clothes is rnirroanded by reiy great dangers. R places perfectiy innocent people at the mercy of every blundering novice who may happen to be told off from the force lor plaid clothes iuty, and who may squally create the jeeasion for breaches ofi the law, through ins own and niisgnided seat Et also has this,; tremendous danger, t ; facilitates the perpetration of ihajt moat sinister ef aU crimes, the impersonation of constables by the criminals —eanselves. If the public are once impressed with the understsnding that any nab in plain clothes who says he is a, Jouetable carries the authority of the law, tn4 *b to be quietly submitted to, tiaen she public arc literally at the mercy off tha greatest rogues out of gaoL ■ - Tha, we iMIIM filf. la so paktl -tal M.,BbAl fcnf JwsHaTt ixtaoxA £fc - 7 . *■.. v _J" -*-" fjV-b-_fc -waa__a^rf_wa*_iy^^_a*_a , *i —*> -fißiai.Ai-i *o^ 1(1 llHlitlil fill (tfi mitytuyuasat of secret police and tihosa igainst that system? Tha conclabob wa coma to ia vary clear and vary positive. It ia this. Ckrastablee

m a secret police, J ■Jt. f tfijjßapW> be need as such. [ ° of crime, and it i Wit fet ba ousted to an entirely j organisation. ( ( body of detectives* .who should not be poUccmen at j trustworthy agente of the police. They Bhould be in all their surroundings ] civilians, with nothing of the eon- i i *» paid eufficienUy to make 'tlem independent of temptaItiaa. Nobody but,, tim. chief officers of the to know who they are, and they ought in special cases to i'jbe slloweb , . empbjy other persona only [known to themselves. Detoetiveeought never to arrest anybody, or interfere with apybody, or disclose their authority to anybody, except under circumstances of extreme urgency. Of course, if a eletee* tive, in the guise of a Methodist parson, say, saw a ruffian about to commit Tnur-, |^Br! or felony, it would be his duty to fruetrate his design. But his ordinary vrali of life should be a strictly privbto one, and he should only influence exime by giving information to the proper authorifiee concerning it. The production of evidence should be bis ohief pursuit The results of such a system as this, if well carried out, are something astonisbing. Nothing deters crime so certainly as the detection sad punishment of crime through: channels which are concealed from the criminals themselves. They are frightened out of their wits by the mystery of ths disclosures, and tiiey immediately suspect xme another, and lose all faith in human nature. If we can get seoret police on a proper basis by all means let us have them, and the sooner the better; but, if notj let us do without them altogether.