POLICE EFFICIENCY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 313, 1 December 1933, Page 6

POLICE EFFICIENCY.

With several serious crimes remaining unsolved it was to be expected that the Police Department would come in for criticism when the Department’s vote was under consideration in the House of Representatives, but the answer given by the Minister of Justice (Hon. .1. G. Cobbe) to the critics of police efficiency removes any cause that might have existed for apprehension in the public mind. The Minister stated that the proportion of undetected crimes in New Zealand compared more than favourably with that in other countries, and at the same time stressed the necessity for the police being sure of their ground before making arrests in serious cases. Those who are in touch with the police from day to day realise that in the New Zealand Force there is a painstaking body of men whose efficiency has attained a high degree. On more than one occasion Judges of the Supreme Court and Magistrates have commended the work of both the uniform and plain clothes branches. Taking into consideration the abnormal conditions through which the country has passed, it is commendable that there has not been a greater number of criminal offences, and for this a measure of credit is due to the police, since their duty lies not only in the detection of crime but in the prevention of it. Reference was made in the Department’s annual report, published recently, to the need for the appointment of additional detectives, and the question is one which will doubtless receive attention as the finances of the department permit; as will also the matter of providing motor cars for official use. In the latter connection it should be noted in relation to some of the outstanding cases of recent years, however, that the police have lost little time in covering all the necessary ground. Their promptitude, an essential in crime detection, has been praiseworthy considering the limitation of their resources. There is another aspect of the detection of crime which could with benefit be reconsidered, however, and that is the time plain clothes officers are called upon to devote, to offences and inquiries of a minor nature. The Police Department to-day is called upon to. undertake multifarious duties and any- step towards releasing the best brains for the more highly specialised branches of detection and prosecution of wrongdoers should find favour with the authorities and the public generally. That recent cases are as yet unsolved does not mean that the efficiency of. the Force is impaired, though it is natural for the man in the street to ask, as lie so often does, “What are the police doing about it ?”