INFORMATION on CRIMINALS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27663, 20 May 1955, Page 12

INFORMATION on CRIMINALS

Creation Of Central Office POLICE SYSTEM OVERHAULED (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 19. A central information office, which would increase efficiency and save manpower, was now being set up at Police Headquarters, Wellington, said the Prime Minister and Minister of Police (Mr Holland) today. It would serve the 360 police stations throughout New Zealand. At present each of these stations maintained its own national record of criminals, said Mr Holland, but under the new system the central information office would advise any station at very short notice whether any person apprehended had a previous criminal record, whether in New Zealand or overseas, what the record was, and the methods by which the criminal normally worked. 4 “This new office, which will give to the country police station quick access to the master records, will prove a most valuable aid to the force in the prevention and detection of crime, said Mr Holland. “It should also be a further deterrent to those who foolishly think that crime pays. “The introduction of the new system involves a major reorganisation in the criminal registration branch, arid though much work has already been done to bring it into operation, it will be a few weeks before all arrangements are complete. “The information office will co-ordin-ate and file the records at present contained in the Police Gazette, the criminal registration branch, the daily police notices issued by each police district, and the modus operand! section. The last-named provides information on the methods normally used by criminals in the past. Use of Master Index “To obtain all the information on file concerning a criminal, it has in many cases been necessary to refer to three or four places, but now it will be possible to obtain the information without delay by the use of a master index,” said Mr Holland. In future, an inquiry made by a station one day would be answered first thing the following morning by telephone. said Mr Holland. “Though the saving of manpower is an important feature of the new arrangement, it is by no means the most important,” he said. “The much more accurate and detailed information which will be available will be invaluable to the force in the work which it has done and is doing so successfully in keeping criminals under control in New Zealand. “The modus operand! section, which is already in existence as part of the criminal registration branch, will be expanded in the new organisation. The information which it provides is an essential aid in modern police work, and one which is greatly feared by the criminal classes. “Information centres are in existence overseas, but the New Zealand one has been developed entirely by local members of the force, and is specially designed to suit the organisation of the tfew Zealand police system. The streamlining which it will give to criminal registration will, I am- sure, be reflected in the future in an even better record of crime prevention and detection,” concluded Mr Holland.