"GENTLEMEN: THE POLICE!"

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 30, 5 February 1927, Page 21

"GENTLEMEN: THE POLICE!"

CRIMES OF OTHER DAYS

RUNNERS, CHARLIES, AND PEELERS.

".Scotland Yard: Its History and Asso ciations." By George Dilnot. London. Geoffrey Bles.

Except at strictly service functions is the toast "The Police!" even honoured. The toast of '' The Press sometimes figures at the end of the list often to the embarrassment of the responders; but who thinks of according similar post-prandial honours to the guardians of life and property on such occasions? Mr. Dilnot deals specifically with the London police, the Metropolitan, and the City forces. It is the fine men composing these bodies of police who have a world-wide reputation for courage, helpfulness, knowledge, and courtesy. .Travellers return from London to the overseas Dominions ever singing the praises of the London police —and with good reason. Of course, there are other police in Great Britain, in Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Cardiff, for example, to whom all that is said in eulogy of the London policeman, especially as regards bravery, will justly apply. Police in the British Dominions tqo,.generally follow closely on the same high traditions and are entitled to the fullest measure of praise, certainly to a place in lost lists.

Mr. Dilnot, however, confines his attentions mainly to London and the story of Scotland Yard, and to the evolution of the London Police Force from the Bow street runner, the Charlies or watchmen, the peelers of the early thirties, to the splendid bodies of men in the city itself and the vast extra mural territory of London. He has attempted rather too much in one book, for there is ample material in his work for separate works on the history and organisation of the police, the criminal investigation branch of the service, and the notable crimes and offences against the person and property. He omits reference to one of the stars of the detective force, William Melville, a quiet gentlemanly and distinguished detective, protector, .and friend of monarchs. Rather meagre references, too, aro made to such eminent authorities as Sir Eobert Anderson, Sir Patrick Quinn, Sir ! Basil Thompson,. and : Superintendent Williamson. OVERMUCH MATERIAL. It is quite evident that Mr. Dilnot has attempted too much to put between one pair of covers; but that in no way detracts from the fascinating reading he provides about the Old Bow Street Runners, the early days of the Police I' oree, when. top hats, swallow-tailed coats, and white trousers were worn by policemen. Outlines of great crimes too, furnish interesting footnotes to psychology. The author makes good his _ claim that "the evolution of the police of London is largely the tale of modern civilisation." Yet the;powers invested with that force are much less than those possessed by the police of the Continent. To the efficiency of the London police and their trust in the innate British respect for law and order is attributable to the fact averred by Mr. Dilnot, that— "The value of property stolen annually in London is very slightly above £500,000, and of this roughly a quarter is recovered. Unsolved murders are of infrequent occurrence . . . and London has fewer murders in a year than some American cities have in a month." SPECIALISTS AND THEIR WORK. "A little less than a twentieth part of the Metropolitan Police is composed of detectives. ... There are actually 900 men under the control of the Criminal Investigation Department, and of these the majority are attached to divisions. . At Scotland Yard itself, there are between 200 and 250 men, many of whom are attached to the specialist departments, such as the special branch, the finger-print department, and the criminal record office. .. . The 'Big Four' superintendents, as the newspapers love to call them, are the link between the Scotland Yard administration and the divisional ; detectives. Each is responsible for the detective work of a quarter of London."

Their training is intensive. They graduate from the uniform, ranks as having special intelligence, initiative, and observation, as plain clothes men become detectives on probation. . But, says Mr. Dilnot— "They may look like what they please in the wide world save and only detectives. It is a fatal disqualification to look like a police officer out of uniform." DETECTIVES AT SCHOOL. For sis months the pupil detective goes to school. "There are lectures on law, on evidence, on the practice of Courts, on medico-legal subjects, on police regulations and practice. The pitfalls that beset! a hasty or ignorant i officer are pointed out. He is taught the methods of criminals from gambling sharps to forgers, from pickpockets to petty sneak thieves. Ho is shown jemmies, and the different marks they may leave, coining implements, shoplifting devices, and the latest apparatus in the march of scientific burglary. He is made aware when he may arrest without a warrant, and when a warrant is necessary. All that ingenuity and experience can suggest for the confusion of the criminal is taught him. He is shown where an expert must be called in, and when his own common-sense must aid him. He is taught something, of Jocks, something of footprints, something of cipher reading. The uses of finger-prints, • the application of photograpiiy to the detection of crime, the machinery at his disposal in the Crime ! Index. He learns the significance of trivialities and the high importance of method." CRIMINAL'S PECULIARITIES. . It has been noticed again and again that the professional criminal "specialises" or goes in a rut. "There is one who will only rob churches; there is another who will only smash jewellers '< windows. Apart from these are the thieves who reveal themselves by the clumsiness or, quite as likely, by the cleverness of their methods. One man mayv force a window, another may corrupt a servant to open a door for him.. In. the extreme case it is improbable that a man who has found the easiest and most effective way to break open a safe will revert to a clumsier method to escape identity. . . . Identification is the root of detective work; without identification all the rest goes for naught."—Z. '■ / FINGER PRINTS. References are made to finger prints as certain marks of identification. Mr. Dilnot shows how Sir Francis Galton "urged and proved that imprints of the fingers were an infallible proof of identity—jthat the chance of two fingerprints being identical was less than one in 64,000 millions," and to Sir Edward Henry, who, realising that the weakness of Galton's classification was its complexity, devised a plan of classification based on a mathematical formula. "No longer was it necessary for detectives to give up time to view criminals in gaol. The hundreds of hours wasted on searching the albums of the Habitual Convicts Registry were saved. A slip of paper, a little printer's ink, and five minutes' work, had abolished all this.

. . . The greatest precautions were taken that no injudicious move should shake faith in the system. Even now, Scotland TaTd will not swear to an identification unless there are at least ton points of resemblance between a suspect's finger-marks and the record." "Every prisoner who goes to gaol for a month or longer nowadays has his finger-prints taken, a little before

he is discharged. The police have only a limited right to take finger-prints or photographs of untried prisoners. In such a case force can only be used under the instruction of an Assistant-Com-missioner. The finger-prints of a person who is acquitted are destroyed.'' A FLYING- SQUAD. Scotland Yard has its own publications for spreading confidential instructions throughout the force; wireless, telephones, and "tapes"; general and seiettiflc specialists of all kinds. The Plying Squad has its own fleet of motorcars; for it is essential that they should be able to move from spot to spot with swift precision. The men who drive these cars are trained to meet any contingency, however dramatic. The tests imposed upon them are drastic. A candidate is taken to a remote country lane with an official sitting at his side. A shot rings out, and he is informed that one arm is 'wounded.' With one hand, therefore, he has to continue his journed at speed. Again, a bundle of hay is thrown in front of the car unexpectedly. He has to dodge this obstacle without the faintest hesitation. These and a dosen other devices aTe 'tried to test his nerve and skill. In quick succession a bewildering number of orders is rapped out, eaeh~of which has to be instantly obeyed. There is an ultimate trial in heavy traffic before a driver is considered qualified to drive a Scotland Yard motor-car. Many of these cars have wireless, by which constant touch may be maintained with headquarters, either by telephone or with the Morse code."

Women are not employed by Scotland Yard in criminal investigation. There is but one woman in the whole denartmet. x

. 'Scotland Yard" is a work possessing as much interest for the general reader and student of human nature as for experts in criminology and police organisation.—"Zero." '