LONDON'S PEACE ARMY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1610, 7 January 1903, Page 27

LONDON'S PEACE ARMY

THE POLICE AND THE PUBLIC.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, November 21.

Society is always exposed to a guerilla warfare by its criminals ever lurking in ambush on the look-out for an insufficiently protected convoy dr individual. No small army is needed to protect us from the social guerillas. Of the activity of that army in the metropolis last year an interesting account is given, mainly in figures, by the Commissioner of Police in his annual report.

The Metropolitan Police District, an area of 688 square miles, extending over a radius of 15 miles from Charing Cross, exclusive of that square mile known as “the city,” has an army of almost 16,000 men in blue to guard it, and pays them every year close on a million and a half. Between them they patrol 2445 miles of streets and squares. Every day 884 are away on leave and 447 on the sick list. The casualties of this army are not light. Over 1600 were injured last year, of whom 235 were incapacitated by—sore feet. To 4000 Nature proved a worse enemy than the burglar or the felon, for that number were rendered hors (might I say hoarse) de combat by rheumatism and throat complaints. What has the “hobby” done for us in the past year? We have all seen with our own eyes how Re controls the traffic. Although his main duty is to stop it, it is safe to say that it could scarcely go on without him. We have all too

asked him. the way and marvelled at his courtesy and accuracy. But of these branches of his activity we only learn by inference- from the report, as no statistics on these points could well be prepared.

London streets are ah tost as-danger-ous as South African battlefields, and last year there were some 8000 casualties from street accidents alone. The police perform no slight labour as bearers, for last year they carried nearly 12,000 people to hospital. Nor is their task as censors and examiners of carriages a sinecure. 1134 would-be hackney drivers bad to be tested as to their knowledge of London and their skill with the whip, and over 16,000 Jehus were licensed to drive vehicles of all kinds, 18 of them to propel motors of sorts. . The police campaign against motors was not sufficiently developed last year to warrant special statistics on this branch of pplice activity which in the outskirts of London threatens to divert the policeman from his normal duties. Altogether 16.000 men were licensed to drive cabs, cars, and ‘buses. Travellers in these vehicles are singularly “absent-minded beggars,” and one department of Scotland Yarci devotes itself to counteracting the results of their absence of mind. The absent-minded beggars of London “left behind them” over 40,000 little tilings in cab or ’bus ; 18,000 of these articles were umbrellas, nearly 3000 purses, several containing £10; 223 Avatches, to say nothing of valuable dressing bags and several live stock, birds, dogs, cats, foAvis and' a rabbit. The man or Avomen Avho can forget his or her pet must be overwhelmingly absorbed in “The Visits of Elizabeth,” “Temporall Power,” - or “The Eternal City.” So well dees the police system work that half the lost articles Avere returned to their OAvners, Avho as compensation to drivers and conductors had to pay £3OOO, several of the reAvards for •honesty ranging from £5 to £75. In tracing the owners the police sent nearly 30,000 letters to the absent-minded ones, while 43,000 ' Avere sent to the Jehus and their attendants.

But after all these are but subsidiary features of the “policeman’s lot.” As the result of their daily drives, the police “bag” of drunks amounts to almost 50,000, of whom sad to say, 19,000 wer© women. The “beggars” by no means absent-minded, vagrants, and “sleepers out” totalled over 3000. The total bag of criminal “mixed game” was 109,000, about 1000 more than the previous year. The “enterprising burglar” is responsible for most of the increase in criminal offences and many householders must plead guilty as accessories before the fact, for of 1719 cases of housebreaking, 970 took place in houses left Avithout a caretaker. Felonies relating to property Avere 17,000, the largest number since 1895. The total amount of loss, too, was high, £376,000. This, however, is accounted for in a great measure by the £166,000 of Avhieh Goudy despoiled the Bank- of Liverpool and the £20,000 worth of jeAvels which the Marquis of Anglesey’s valet “conveyed” to his French temptress. £142,000 Avortli of the stolen property A\ T as recovered. Of the 24 murderers, only one remained undetected.

The new ally of the police for identification, .the finger print system, Avhieh Avas in operation for the last six months, has proved invaluable, and soon the detectives will have all the professional criminals at their fingers’ ends. Of the 503 identifications, 410 were by anthropometry and. 93 by finger prints, and it is anticipated that the number of identifications by the new system in 1902 AAdll he three times larger than the highest figures hitherto secured by anthropometry. OAving to the greater effectiveness of the neAv method, it has been found possible to dispense with the attendance of officers from divisions at prison identification parades, much saving of time and men resulting.