HOW SCOTLAND YARD BEGAN

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 80, 28 December 1929, Page 27

HOW SCOTLAND YARD BEGAN

THE MAKING OF DETECTIVES All people are familiar with the expression, “Scotland Yard has been called in,” and by it they understood that some of the best brains in the world for criminal detection have been asked to help-solve a mystery that has baffled the ordinary police. Less than a hundred years ago the Bow Street Runners were regarded as the experts'in crime detection or “thieftaking,” while criminal investigation was also one of the duties of a constable. The two worked in conjunction, the runners taking the jewel robbers, leaving the murders to the constables.

When the runners ceased in 1839 there were no reguar detective until 1842, says Mr. J. F. Moylan, the Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District, in his interesting book, "Scotland Yard and the Metropolitan Police,” in which he explains how Scotland Yard and the modern police system was established.

In 1842 occurred the murder by Daniel Good, and the fact that he escaped arrest for some time led to criticism of the poUce. A reluctant Home Secretary was eventually persuaded to sanction, as a cautious experiment, the formation of a small detective branch —two inspectors and six sergeants—with an office at Scotland Yard. From the first the public showed a good deal of prejudice against detectives, and it was not until 1864 that there was any increase in the permanent detective establishment. Then came the bombshell —the great Scotland Yard scandal in 1877. Three of the highest officers in the central office were found guilty of conspiring with a gang.of swindlers in the carrying out of fraudulent betting agencies, Following an inquiry'extensive changes were made, and in 1878 the Criminal Investigation Department was created. From this date exciting times have been the order of the day. In 1888 came the series of fiendish murders in Whitechapel, popularly attributed to “Jack the Ripper.” Feel ing ran high against Scotland Yard and the C.I.D. for their failure to lay hands on this notorious murderer. But the public’s confidence was restored by the successes in such cases as Neil Cream, the poisoner, and Millsom and Fowler, the Muswell Hill murderers. By steady achievement in the less advertised everyday business of thiefcatching, the C.I.D. had, by the nineties, built up the world-wide reputation for efficiency in crime detection that is to-day unrivalled. Mr. Moylan tells how a detective is “born.” “Both central and local detectives are recruited from the ranks of the uniformed constables, and every candidate for the detective branch must have done at least one year’s and not more than seven years’ duty in uniform. Subject to this condition any constable is eligible for the C.I.D. He will be given a trial in plain clothes, and if be acquits himself satisfactorily will be recommended as a plain-clothes patrol, subject to passing a special educational examination. “Speaking generally, a C.I.D. case is one in which the offence is serious enough to 1 be indictable —i.e., one for which a person may be committed for triaL The number of indictable offences reported to the Metropolitan Police has averaged between 15,000 and 16,000 a year since the war, and nearly all these would be investigated by the C.I.D. Thousands of cases are referred to the C.I.D. for inquiry which do not come before a court or are even classified as, a reported crime.”