WAR AGAINST CRIME

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 220, 13 June 1933, Page 13

WAR AGAINST CRIME

Part That Modern Science Plays THE LAW & ITS WEAPONS Now that the police enlist the help of science in lighting the criminal, the latter in turn grows scientific. So has begun a long campaign which, like the Great War, threatens to become a stalemate. There are criminals and criminals. The ordinary malefactor is not blessed with much intellect. He pits low cunning against organised detection, and fights a losing battle. But now the super-criminal has arisen. Faced with modern scientific methods, lie finds it ■ necessary to become scientific himself, or, rather, to employ unscrupulous persons with technical knowledge; and in the end lie can often turn the weapons of the law against itself. Certain scientific methods of detection are sometimes nullified. Fingerprints, for example. Experienced criminals take precautions against leaving any. and the carefully-catalogued prints held by the police authorities may thus go for nothing. There is the new science of ballistics. Experts can now trace any bullet to the original weapon from which it was fired. This is due to the fact that minute markings on the barrel set up a pattern on the bullet, and these patterns are as distinctive as finger-prints. Wonderful sleuth-work in ordinary murder eases has been accomplished by ballistics, and in several instances an innocent man has been freed of suspicion. But in America, home of gunmen, ballistics, as a weapon of detection, often fails to score. As soon as he shoots a victim the criminal drops his gun. When Jake Lingle, press reporter, was shot dead by a gangster in a crowded Chicago subway, the murderer dropped his gun alongside the body and vanished in the crowd. Ballistic experts identified the bullet as coming front the gun—which got them nowhere in tracing the murderer. Owing to the fact flint American gunmen abandon revolvers as soon as their possession may afford clues, such stray guns by the thousand are periodically piled on rafts and sunk out at sea by the police. Betrayed By Ashes. Another police weapon which has been turned against its originators in America is the machine-gun. Originally used by the police, in quelling mass riots, such as gaol outbreaks, it was found a handy weapon in fighting gangsters. But the latter soon found the machine-gun equally useful in fighting one another or the police, and now specialise in a portable type, specially made for them by “crook” artificers. In other fields, however, the scientific detective is well ahead of the lawbreaker. There is, for instance, forgery. With the new methods of examining forged banknotes chemically and microscopically, the forgery may be traced back to the original maker unless he can get rid of his stock of paper and inks in time. A striking instance occurred in 1930 in Burma. A suspected npte-forger's house was raided, but, seeing the police coming, the criminal burned up his stock of bogus notes before they arrived. A Government expert seized the ashes, and was able to prove, first (by the microscope) that they had been banknote’s, and, secondly (by chemical analysis), that they were forgeries. Invisible Rays. Another modern device to foil the criminal is the photo-electric cell, which is superseding the old-type burglar alarms. The latter usually took the form of electric devices fitted to windows and doors, giving an alarm as soon as these were tampered with. In New South Wales recently a building, the windows and doors of which were protected by eleborate burglaralarms, was robbed by criminals, who broke in by the roof. With a photoelectric cell alarm, this robbery would probably have been prevented. The device utilises an Invisible beam of infra-red rays protecting the safe or money. The latter cannot 'be approached without the invisible ray being interrupted momentarily, which sets off the alarm. As burglars'cannot see the ray or guess its location or height, there does not seem to be any. way of circumventing it. An ultra-scientific criminal, perhaps. might carry an infra-red ray projector himself, and keep it focussed on the photo-electric cell—if he could find it without first cutting the ray!

“Tabbing” Stolen Cars.

The use of motor-cars by criminals and the possibility of their being traced has led to the adoption of the plan of stealing a private car and abandoning it after the erime has beefi committed. .It seems safe, because even if the number is identified, this does not matter. Overseas police, however, have invented a method of “tabbing” such a car. which identifies it during the criminals’ getaway. A small gun, which fires a splash of vivid indelible scarlet dye is issued to police, caretakers, and proprietors of all-night businesses liable to be robbed—such as garages. If this is fired at the thieves’ car, the resultant splash of colour upon it warns anyone meeting it that it contains escaping criminals.

Perhaps, of all criminals, the murderer has the hardest task to foil detection in these scientific times. Even if he burns the body of his victim, it may bo identified by the teeth or some ornament which he Ims overlooked. If he tries to bury it in some lonely spot, it is an even chance that it will be discovered. as in the Moxley case. If his clothes get spotted with blood, the old story, that he was slaughtering an animal or getting one ready for cooking, will not do: modern methods can distinguish human blood, even in stains weeks old. And there is no readily obtainable poison which cannot be identified or traced.

All told, though the criminal is growing more scientific as his pursuers do so, the latter are always a little ahead.