British Police Reform.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20866, 27 May 1933, Page 10

British Police Reform.

Lord Trenchard's scheme for raising the educational standard of the Metropolitan Police, discussed in the cable news during the week, has drawn upon him the wrath of that seasoned democrat, Mr George Lansbury. A little captiously, Mr Lansbury condemns the scheme as an attempt to make openings for unemployed university and public school men. Public opinion, however, will be on the side of Lord Trenchard, for the activities of motor bandits and the increase in crimes of violence in Britain in the last year or so have aroused an uneasy feeling that the personnel and of the police forces are unsatisfactory. "The under-world," says a writer in the "Nineteenth " Century," " is now very exten- " sively recruited from sources " equipped with a higher brain "power than was the case 20 years " ago; from criminals possessing a " knowledge of the latest mechani- " cal devices which they do not "scruple to use in furthering their " nefarious designs—the telephone, "motor vehicles, and even broad- " casting." The police system as a whole has failed to keep pace; though individual units have certainly learnt the successful use of modern weapons in counter-attack, and there are occasional instances of university graduates joining the police service at the bottom rung of the ladder. The chief problem, however, lies in the very nature of the British police system, which, unlike most other police systems, is the result of evolution and not manufacture. New Zealand has one

police force, controlled by a commissioner in Wellington; but there are at least three distinct types of forces in England and Wales alone, and each of these is composed of a great many autonomous units. All are in the final instance subject to the word of the Home Secretary, but none, with the exception of the Metropolitan Police, is directly responsible to the Home Office. Outside the Metropolitan Police, the t>vo chief units are the county and borough forces. According to the writer in the " Nineteenth Century " a first step in the co-ordination of the system as a whole should be the amalgamation of some of the smaller borough forces with their respective county forces. But there are many difficulties to be overcome before this can be effected. The borough police forces of England were established some years before the county forces. Moreover, they are controlled by local watch committees, and their organisation is radically different from that of the county forces, which are under the autocratic control of chief constables. Several committees have been appointed by the Home Office and by Parliament to investigate the matter; but so far only a small number of amalgamations have been effected, and these with great difficulty. So long, as the present system continues, however, Britain cannot expect the maximum of efficiency from her police.