NOVEL POLICE METHODS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18764, 18 January 1923, Page 9

NOVEL POLICE METHODS

VICTORIAN INNOVATIONS. (Fbom Ode Owk Corbiesponeekt.J SYDNEYi, January 11. Novel methods of detecting- crime are being instituted by the Victorian Criminal Investigation Branch. Of these the most, important is the installation of wireless telephone sets on the police motor patrols. Arrangements have been completed with Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia), Ltd., to equip the police cars with “receiving” . , wireless telephones, and it is hoped that the new system will be in operation this, !d; week. , Messages sent to police headquarters in tj the night for police assistance cannot be . promptly conveyed to the motor patrol, . which can only be located at certain in-, ~ tervals. It has frequently happened that owing to the delay in communicating mes-. sages to the patrol, the thieves have left the scene of robbery before the police arrive. Under the now system the members of the patrol will be promptly notified of., J,’ the report of a robbery, and the locality ~ will be searched for the thieves, and if fought advisable the houses of suspects promptly searched. ‘.f. Police dogs will later assist in the track-,, ing of thieves committing robberies at night. It is believed that they will be of great assistance in the now methods of crime detection. Good work has also been done by the . two black trackers (aborigines) recently, brought to Queensland. Last week they - traced a man who had wandered into the bush and became exhausted. It is intended to use these black trackers in other branches of police work. Commenting on the usefulness of theblack tracker a police officer has recalled the tracking of a man who after having committed a serious crime walked into the railway sleepers to Ararat for a distance of seven miles. Black trackers found that the man was wearing nails in the heel ,of , his boot and that one naiil was missing. : , They traced the man to e hut and later . the "crime which he had committed was avenged.