POLICE ATTACKED

NZ Truth, Issue 1050, 7 January 1926, Page 1

POLICE ATTACKED

4. Are They Shirking Their Duty? " Premium On Crime" (From "Truth's" Special London Rep.) All over the world the London "bobby" is the synonym for placid efficiency m his job, and therefore it comes as a rude shock to find . fuch ah authority as Sir. Basil Thomson, once head of the Criminal Investigation Department, attacking them by no means mildly in> his book, "The Criminal," just published. He charges the police not only with inefficiency, but also with shirking their duty. ; ■ • " In support of the first charge "he quotes from official statistics to de-monstrate-that during the post-war

period ending m 1922 there was "-.a. steady rise m the number of indictable offences, while the efficiency of 'the police, judged -by the number of persons arrested ; and dealt .with, fell from 65 per cent. : to' 56 per cent; \ ■■; .^ ■ Even before the war the decline had started, for m 1912 72 per cent; - was the figure and m 1913 70 per ; cent. ' '■■'•;. ■ '...-■'/ .■■ •'. .' -j," '■' Sir Basil goes on to point out that if only a little more than haif the people who commit offences are to be arrested then.it puts a premium on crime. The business is becoming too ' profitable and the risk top small to . be neglected. ! As. to the shirking of .their duty, Sir Basil says that 'many; cases haye-cpTiie under 'his notice- wherjj merabera i'-'of the | C.I.D. have discouraged complainants from prosecuting; on tlie grounds that it is unlikelj' that the stolen goods could be: recovered — though perhaps the j real ground: may have been that to record the complaint would swell- the v&turns .of ; undiscovered (unpunished) crime m the division. ' .