NEW CRIME WAVE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 120, 24 May 1939, Page 9

NEW CRIME WAVE

ENGLISH FIGURES

SCOTLAND YARD BUSY

England is in the middle of a new crime wave as the year starts. The view has been expressed in police circles that if it continues the London Police Force will need an increase of 10,00 men, writes David Darrah in the "Chicago Tribune."

Statistics compiled by Scotland Yard show there has been an increase in almost every type of major crime. More than 100 brutal attacks on women have occurred i$ the last six months, a figure higher than ever previously recorded.

Murders in England were up by more than 36 per cent. Sixty-five persons were murdered last year as against forty-one in 1937. Prosecutions in cases involving cruelty to children numbered over 7000 in 1938.

In consequence of these and other crime increases, new methods of scientific crime detection. will be introduced by Scotland Yard. IDENTIFYING DIAMONDS. Special efforts will be made to eliminate jewel thieves. One method to be used consists of finger printing diamonds. This involves taking a microscopic photograph of the internal crystal structure of a stone, which is never the same in any two diamonds and can be recognised yen if the stones have been recut.

When this method is generally adopted Scotland Yard police expect a great decrease in diamond thefts. Although the jewel thief season here is traditionally considered to last from November to March, big gangs were "busy all through last year. More than sixty safes were robbed in the first eight months of last year.

Jewellery worth more than a million dollars was stolen in these raids. This figure was double that for all of 1937. Police say that last year in fact was the worst crime year they have ever known.

Vast quantities of jewellery stolen not only in the British Isles, but all over Europe are being handled by an international syndicate with branches in every large city, including London. Scotland Yard has learned that instead of the usual 10 per cent, on the nominal value of their swag thieves are getting 50 per cent, from the organisation now.

But Scotland Yard men say that until the inevitable "squeal" comes they are powerless to act. They also are trying to get a tip on the clever organisation which smuggles jewels out of the country.

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