METHODS OF POLICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19718, 18 August 1927, Page 10

METHODS OF POLICE.

ALLEGATIONS OF TRAPS.

BETTING AND LIQUOR CASES

AUCKLAND MEMBER'S CHARGES

[by telegraph.—special reporter.] WELLINGTON. Wednesday.

"If it is all right for a policeman to gain the confidence of an alleged bookmaker in order to make a bet to trap him, or to encourage a sly grog seller to break the law, so that he may be caught, it is equally logical to argue that members of the force should be provided with jemmies and be told to encourage a man to commit a burglary so that he may walk into the arms of a detective," said Mr. V. 11. Potter (Roskill), in the House this evening, when asking the Minister of Justice to see "that policemen were hot asked to break the law in order to obtain evidence against suspected persons." Mr. Potter said that in Auckland recently a policeman had been sent to reside in a hotel at the public expense and there he had gained the confidence of a man suspected of bookmaking, had met the, man's friends and had had drinks with them, all with a view to setting a trap for the suspected individual.

While a race meeting was in progress Che police officer was provided with from the public purse, and these, Mr. Potter alleged, had been used to make bets With the. alleged bookmaker. Detectives who searched the suspected man immediately afterwards had failed to find the notes, however. In another case in Wellington a policeman had encouraged a sly grog seller to break the law in order that he might obtain evidence. "Policemen thoroughly resent being asked to act as spies/" said Mr. Potter. He said Scotland Yard, which set the standard for the world in the detection of crime, deprecated the employment ol such methods. He said that even when "Jack the Ripper" was at large the head of the department had stated that only legitimate means would be used in the endeavours to bring him to book. Mr Putter also pleaded for more substantial remuneration for members of the police force, who, he said, were undeipaid for the responsible work which they had to perform.