CORRESPONDENCE.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13596, 3 December 1909, Page 9

CORRESPONDENCE.

«A .MISTAKEN POLICY.'^ TO THE EDITOB OF "THE fRESS." Sird—l have just read your remarks under this heading in Tuesday s issueof 'The Press," and consider them fully justified and most timely. Some six months ago my shop -was broken into by burglars and goods to the value of some £50 or more were stolen. Information was given at once to the local Detective Office. The detectives kept the information strictly to themselves. The facts were not published and no warning was given to the warehouses and stores in my locality. , _ • __ During the following fortnight a number of business places near my own were also entered by thieves with varying degrees of success. These happenings were also reported' to tho police, but nothing was allowed to appear in the papers. No one has been apprehended for these burglaries, nor is it likely now that anyone will bo. I suppose the notes taken by the detectives at the time are carefully filed away and forgotten. • The goods stolen from my store were of such a nature that they could be readily identified, and I was foolish emnigh to think, at the time, that the detectives would very quickly trace the culprits. I have had to modify my opinion of our local detective branch very considerably. Would it be possible, Mr Editor, for you to obtain and publish this information, vi_t—(l) The number of burglaries, thefts, etc. (large and small), reported during the past twelve months at the Police Department in Christchurch. (2) The mimber of arrests made as a result of such reports P If accurate information on these two pointe could be obtained and published, I fancy the puhlic would demand that the detective branch should be re organised forthwith, or at least show somo results for the expenditure that we, as taxpayers, have to provide for the services of this department.—Yours, etc., SHERLOCK HOLMES. Christchurch-, December 2nd.