MEN WHO HUNT ROGUES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18771, 26 July 1924, Page 2 (Supplement)

MEN WHO HUNT ROGUES.

TRAINING OF DETECTIVES, UNIVERSITY IN NEW YORK. "A SCIENTIFIC .CALLING." MANTLE OF SHERLOCK: HOLMES. There are many striking differences between the training given to the detective at Scotland Yard and that provided for his confrere in America. In England it is generally held that theoretical training is not of much value. But the idea is not. held so firmly as it used to be, and Inspector, Collins, of the C.1.D., recently made a special journey to Lyons to study the scientific methods of crime detection evolved by Dr; Locard, chief of the Lyons Police Laboratory. A correspondent of the Sunday News describes the painstaking training given to the men who join the American detective force. The University for Detectives lately established in New York is now receiving candidates for the mantle of Sherlock Holmes from the police forces of all the great American cities. In England the detective, as a rule, gains his training in the first place as a member of the uniformed force. It is only when he has there acquired a measure of experience and shown his aptitude for detective work that he is transferred to the C.1.D., where, under the eye of more experienced men, he, gradually acquires the ability to handle the most intricate and difficult cases on his own responsibility. The Methods of Training. There is in Britain nothing to compare with the methods of the New York detective university, where nearly 500 men are graduated as scientifically trained sleuths, it is a bare, unattractive place, and the big rooms, with their rows of desks, blackboards and wall charts, resemble the rooms of a technical school. In one of the rooms a veteran with a long record of criminals run to earth stands before a class. He is demonstrating, with a series of enlarged photographs, how a detective may pierce disguises and spot well-known " crooks." There are photographs of the same man clean-shaven, moustached, full-bearded; there are photographs of women with blonde hair, with black tresses, with shingled locks. To the untrained eye the disguises seem perfect, but the expert easdy sees through them to the real individual beneath. Packs of cards show the system of markings used by train and hojel and liner crooks. The instructor describes the methods of these gentry, 'and then turns to his portrait gallery of the exponents of that line known to the police the world over. Ways of Confidence Men. Next comes a lecture on the methods of confidence men, forgers and picture "fakers," with demonstrations. The instructor picks up a neat little wooden box. He turns a handle, and out come ten dollar bills, neat and clean. He hands them round: Anything wrong?" he asks, "No? Well, that s because they are genuine." He then explains how a gang is exploiting the morally weak by offering this box for £1000, claiming that it automatically tunis. out ten dollar notes like sausages. It is, of course, just a Elain box with a hundred or so ten dollar ills in it. The dupe finds he has paid £1000 for something worth £100 or perhaps £200. In another room., a keen-faced man js juggling with automatics. Automatic guns tell a lot, he says. For instance: " How was a shot fired—from right or left, from above or below ? Look where the body was lying, then look for the ejected cartridge—it will tell you. An automatic ejects from the right.' 1 In a large room, arranged like a court, a Judge—a real Judge—sits on the bench, and practising lawyers stand at the bar. But the man m the dock is not a criminal —he is a detective pupil on trial on a charge, particulars of which are contained in a " dossier" supplied to the pupils. A mock trial i 3 gone through, and every detail of practical criminal procedure explained. At lectures in Bellevue Hospital the class sees" an expert on poisons at work making microscopic slides, examining minute blood stains, testing for human blood. The most popular lectures are those given by old and tried detectives, who describe the methods used by notorious "crooks." Most skilled "cracksmen" have their own■• particular methods, and the experienced detective can often spot the man behind the crime by seeing just how he did his " job." Value of Small Glues. Police-Lieutenant O'Connell, one of New York's crack sleuths, told a class how he traced the Schmidt murderer. Schmidt murdered a woman, dismembered the body, and threw it into the River Hudson. It was in a pillow-case. A laundry tag gave a clue. . It was followed up, and after weeks of work the detective found himself in Schmidt's flat, where there was abundance of further evidence which brought the criminal to the electric chair. That things are not always what they seem is a lesson the detective must learn early. Not long ago a jeweller came to the'police with a story of having been bound and gagged and robbed of jewels worth £40,000. A detective examined the suit the man was wearing and the rope he said had been used. The suit had only a few small fragments of the hemp on it. The detective put on a similar suit, had himself bound, and found that he was left covered with hempen fibre. The whole story was a fabrication to cover an attempt to swindle the insurance company, and the jeweller was speedily convicted. When the detective pupil has been taught all these things—and many others —he is taught that to catch his man is only half his real job. Thereafter he must patiently go to work to piece together every little bit of evidence that will prove his charge. " The detective of the future*" said Police Commissioner Enright, the founder of the New York University for Detectives, "will be, fkst and foremost, a practical man; but. he will also be a scientifically trained man, just as are the chemist, the physician and the psychologist, for his is a scientific calling." ,