SUPPORT FOR POLICE URGED

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22345, 8 March 1938, Page 18

SUPPORT FOR POLICE URGED

DANGER IN TOO LENIENT PROBATION (FKI33 ASSOCIATION TZLXGBAJI.) AUCKLAND, March 7. A warning to New Zealand to avoid an excess of "sob-stuff" in the treatment of criminals was implied in comments made to-day by Colonel F. A. Fenning, a lawyer of Washington, and a former American Commissioner of Police, who is returning home with his wife in the Mariposa form a visit to Australia. He has had discussions with high i police officials in Auckland, Sydney, and Melbourne. "I have travelled extensively and studied police methods throughout the world," he said. "I believe the Metropolitan Police, London, to be the best in the world, and the police forces of New Zealand and Australia are patterned to a great extent after the London system. However, from what I have seen I think these two countries are having, to a degree, the same embarrassment as has been caused in the United States by too lenient probation and parole. This is bound to be discouraging to the police. _ - "A substantial majority of major crimes in recent years in the United States, I believe, have been directly traced to persons on parole after conviction for other offences." The police should be supported by the public, he said, and there should be less "sob-stuff" in the treatment of criminals.