RADIO AIDS THE POLICE

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 5 January 1935, Page 6

RADIO AIDS THE POLICE

“EVERY LISTENER POTENTIAL DETECTIVE.” LONDON, Nov. 16. “SOS. . k » .Wanted for murder yy A message, broadcast by the 8.8. C. nearly two years ago, led to the arrest of Samuel James Furnace, the Chalk Farm murderer. Scotland Yard—who have never disdained the aids science can give a detective—were quick to realise the value of wireless. Radio lias made the way of the transgressor even harder than it was before. Nowadays, with the co-operation of the 8.8. C., Scotland Yard are able to flash a full description of a wanted man throughout every corner of the kingdom. Broadcasting classifies its SOS calls in three categories: Illness, witnesses of accidents and crime and special. During the quarter ended last September the 8.8. C. sent out thirty-two police SOS calls for “witnesses of accidents.” Seventeen of them responded and reported to the police immediately. ERRORS CORRECTED. “Crime and special” calls for the same quarter numbered fourteen. The police made five arrests. An official of the 8.8. C. gave a Daily Express representative some interesting facts concerning these dramatic broadcasts. “We find the public respond quickly to our SOS messages,” he said, “especially in cases of crime. Every listener feels he is a potential detective. “No sooner has a crime SOS been sent out than telephone calls pour in asking for the message to be rebroadcast and inquiring for more details. “Last year,” he went on, “two urgent police broadcasts averted possible tragedies. One concerned a man who had sold his customer petrol in mistake for paraffin. Another case was that of a siiopkeeper who sold some boys live cartridges instead of blanks.” Nearly all the mobile vans employed by Scotland Yard are now equipped with wireless.