POLICE INQUIRY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20586, 8 December 1928, Page 21

POLICE INQUIRY.

METHODS OF THE C.I.D. QUESTION OF WOMEN POLICE! (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON. November 2. Sir Wyndham Childs, assistant commissioner of Metropolitan Police, in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department, made some interesting disclosures in his evidence before the Koyal Commission. Referring to what he termed the vexed question of an accused or suspected person, Sir Wyndham said that, as an example, to show hofr difficult it was to avoid a popular feeling of undue pressure, he would take the case of a big burglary. " There is no clue, The subject of my staff would be to seek to discover the person who had done the job. They would arrive, say, at 10 names. The modus operandi of burglars is generally peculiar, and the C.I.D. would spot the burglar, where ofteu a countryman would not. "We get the 10 names, r and then the process of elimination starts. We should take a man, whom we will call A, and ask him to come to Scotland Yard or to a police station or meet him elsewhere: The officer in_ charge of the case would say. ' I am Chief Inspector So-and-so, and am making inquiries into a burglary committed on the night of November 23. Where were you on the, night of November 23?' The man, perhaps, would say: 'I was staying at Southampton.' The telephone goes to the Southampton police. If the story told is true we say: 'We are sorry to have troubled you/ and the man goes. ' The next man is taken, and inquiries as to his answer show that it is untrue. The inspector Bays: 'That story is untrue,' Then the man will say: 'To tell you" the truth, I was not where I told you on that night. I met with some trouble at home, and was in London with someone else, and I don't want my wife to know.' This is verified, and we say: 'Thank you very much; we are sorry to have detained you.' When a man's first, story was proved| to be a He he naturally became somewhat suspect; but the suspicion was dispelled by the truth of his second story. ' CAUTIONING A SUSPECTED PEKSON.

" Now for the most difficult part. Elimination has reduced us to the last man, who cannot account for his movements at all. " While he was detained a massage comes through that his handkerchief has been found in the flat.' The police officer says: 'Your handkerchief was found in the flat, and watches the man's face. The man makes no answer, or he says: 'I should like to account for that handkerchief.' Instantly the officer should caution him, because the statement that the man is going to make may be a confession of guilt, or a; statement which is intended to be a defence, and it may contain some flaw which makes it, in the eyes of the law, a confession." The chairman: He makes the statement about the handkerchief before lie has been cautioned. That is evidence, is it not? Sir Wyndham replied that that question would be for the judicial authorities alone to decide. THE FORTUNE TELLER. On the subject of women police, Sir Wyndham Childs - asserted that they were of m> use to the 0.1. D., except in cases of watching the passing of cocaine, or in the case of clairvoyants, when they wore employed as, what he was afraid would be called provacateurs. The fortune teller might charge a guinea to fashionable people, and it did not matter, but when the fortune teller took to swindling ignorant girls out of half a guinea by telling them of a dark man with flashing eyes who would appear as a lover, then the police took action. He did not wish .to be understood as condemning women police in general, but they were not of sufficient use to the C.IJD. to warrant putting them on the staff. The C.I.D. could always borrow women from the uniformed branch to deal with particular cases. The chairman asked whether they would be_use^L, n the case of nigM clubs. _ Sir Wyndham Childs: f do not know. rp ave never been to one. ft ™ I 4m equally ignorant there. But I assume you think they would not look the part, though I suppose not everyone who goes to a night club is particularly attractive. Mr Pick: When you say that you use women do you mean that you borrow wonren police? Sir Wyndham Childs. No, We borrow ether women who not only look the part out are the part.- '

POLICEWOMAN WHO ELOPED Mr T. Davies, Chief Constable of Portsmouth, giving evidence, said that during "if war they had three women policy officers, and on the whole they were not a success. Lord Lee: Tell us what your reason/ are for having given up women police after having once tried them?~One serious reason is that ope of the women went away with one of my beat, inspectors and they both lost their positions. You mean they married?—She was a widow and'he was a married man. What happened to the other two?—They had to be discharged because of the Oreddes case.

Mr Davies said he felt that women police were splendid for rescue and welrars work, but not for police officers. Replying to Miss Margaret Beavan (Mayor of Liverpool), Hr Davies said tnat in the case of the woman police officer who went away with an inspector her place was not filled.

Miss Beavan: If a man had done anything contrary to morals,' or law, vou would have filled his place?—Yes. Then there is one law for the woman and another for the man?—l do not agree with you. I had come to the conclusion that they were not worth 1 the money we were paying them. That is all.- ' WOMEN QUARRELLED. _Mr H. H. Sanders, Chief Constable of Plymouth, said that at ope time women were employed in connection with the Plymouth police, but he did not consider their services justified the expense. They quarrelled. i The chairman; With each other?—Yes. Tell us quite seriously, apart from any question of economy, in what way did you nnd them, satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Were they fully sworn police?—No. They were not trained policewomen?— One was, because she had been in the Women’s Police Organisation, in London. One was the daughter of a clergyman, and The other was a school teacher. . You have not felt the need of them since?—No.