CRIME DETECTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22142, 22 June 1935, Page 10 (Supplement)

CRIME DETECTION

SCOTLAND YARD METHODS WONDERFUL ORGANISATION REVELATIONS BY EX-OFFICER "It will be a revelation to my readers to learn that I had serving under me just one hundred plain clothes officers. One hundred detectives in a squaro mile! It almost sounds like overcrowding. But the following pages will reveal how peculiar and varied were the crimes enacted in the City o London, as to render it necessary for us to house the densest police population in the whole world, writes exChief Detective-Inspector Ernest Nicholls, in his book, "Crime Withm the Square Mile." "TFfcre have been many books written by the famous detectives, inspectors and other officials of Scotland Yard, and it is sometimes overlooked that the City of London itself has a wonderful organisation for the prevention of crime. Many of the cases cited by exInspector Nicholls naturally have a financial backgroud, and the cases of Whitaker Wright, Bottomley, and others of the type appear in tlus entertaining volume. Mr. Nicholls, however, does not confine himself to a record oi cases. "In the police service we have several aids to man-hunting about which the public hears but very little and knows loss," says the author. " There are about 7000 police stations in the country, and within five minutes of a crime being discovered details can be broadcast to all stations large and small from Scotland \ard. Wireless is becoming one of our most eliective weajKms; before l°ngi r j e , vi 7 sion and telephotography will be added to our crime fighting arms. Ihe whole world, if need be, can be informed in a few minutes of a crime, and usually with added details of the personality of the perpetrators. Police Newspapers

" Scotland Yard are newspaper printers and publishers of no mean order. T.he department prints all its own official publications, from its \ear Book to an evening newspaper. Needless to say, they aro not. on sale; to possess a copy is punishable under the Official Sscrets' Act. There is tho Police Almanac, which can be termed the police officers' vade mecum. " It is a very valuable work of ready reference for an officer, whether he be a village policeman or a chief constable. The weekly Illustrated Circular is the rogues' picture gallery. The movement of every known rogue temporarily out of prison and on ticket-of-leave is recorded in the Circular, an .d many crimes a:re frustrated by the aid of information contained therein. " The Yard's earliest effort at a newspaper was called Hue and Cry; today it is known as the Police Gazette. Herein the ' big ' crook comes under editorial attention. It is a bi-weekly publication and reaches every police station in England and Wales. It is the ' Who's Who ' of crime and criminals, and is copiously illustrated with photographs and finger-prnts of ticket-ot-leave men who have failed to report, or dangerous aliens,who have disappeared.

Daily Information | " The Yard's daily effort is entitled I Orders. This is also circulated to every police station and the contents read out each day at parade before men go out on their beats. Other news-sheets issued From time to time are the stolen Car and Bicycle List, the Pawnbroker's List and the Black Last. " The police evening newspaper oi several editions daily is Informations. It is printed on fast rotary presses, as up-to-ds.te as can be found in any newspaper office. It is distributed just like newspapers, in fact, by vans and motor cycles. Usually it runs to eight pages per edition, and at a busy period will contain upward of 500 separate items of police news and information. "Up and down the country are 181 separate police forces employing over 60 000 men, varying from forces or upward. The total expenditure per annum is over £20,000,000, and the income over ten and a-quarter million pounds. Every force m the country can draw on ' C.R.O. ' for information. The Criminel Record Office at the Y-rd costs £15,000 a year to keep up. The Finger-Pilnt Bureau

41 The finger-print bureau identifies each vear about 300,000 criminals by their ' dabs,' and guarantees to supply station with> '^MO within 24 hours. It is a 64,000,UUU,uuu to 1 chance of two persons having iden"b a million record, all tabulated and filed and over two hun dred thousand photographs of crimi nals. Ii is always up-to-date, and even dead men are eliminated as the information comes to hand.lhemodus operandi index is aptly described by its title. This is but a slight insight into seme of the greatest assets of the police." _____