Big U.S. Anti-Crime Drive

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31330, 29 March 1967, Page 13

Big U.S. Anti-Crime Drive

(N.Z. Press Assn.— Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 28. Crime goes under the microscope today of 500 law enforcement, court and other officials seeking to trace the anatomy of lawlessness that frightens some Americans off the street with violence and preys on others through organised syndicates. The 500 were called to Washington by President Johnson to help plan what could be the greatest anti-

crime drive the United States has carried out The broad outline of the problem and about 200 recommendations for coping with it are contained in a 352-page report by the President’s Crime Commission. The report took 18 months to produce. It says that it would cost “several hundred million dollars” in each of the next 10 years to wags a successful drive. It recommends a vast overhaul of police organisation and techniques In handling crime and better methods of handling problems that involve minority groups in racial and other disputes. Conference panel sessions will deal with such problems as street robberies and attacks so frightening they have “im-

pelled hundreds of thousands of Americans to move their homes or change their habits” burglary, larcency, car theft and other crimes. But a whole category of crimes lumped together under the title "business crimes” will also be emphasised. These include organised crime which the police say extends throughout the United States, linking fraternities of criminals exacting a huge toll from citizens each year. On the eve of the conference the Justice Department reported a record number of criminal indictments on Federal racketeering counts issued last year. The Government issued 1198 such indictments and got 477 convictions. In 1965 it issued 872 indictments and got

410 convictions. The department said that it had files on more than 3000 principal racketeers in the United States—7oo more than the number listed in 1965. The President’s commission said: “The Mafia or Cosa Nostra, or the Syndicate, is deeply involved in business crime and protects its position there by bribery and graft, and all too often assault and murder. “White collar crime and organised crime are subjects about which the crimnal justice system and the community as a whole have little knowledge. “But acquirng such knowledge in a systematic way is an extremely high-priority obligation of those entrusted with protecting society from crime.”