POLICE CONFIDENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26026, 14 December 1945, Page 5

POLICE CONFIDENT

CHECKING OF CRIME MODERN SCIENTIFIC AIDS (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 12. Measures were adopted long ago to deal with the wave of crime which has recently broken out in Britain, says The Times. The outbreak is not nearly so serious as that after the 191418 war and the police are confident that with the co-operation of the public it can be checked. Modern scientific developments are greatly aiding Scotland Yard to deal with the crimes. Official figures reveal that the number of murders in 1945 has not yet exceeded 20, which is the avei-age for a normal year. There were 271 crimes of violence to December, 1945, compared with 240 for the whole of last year. There were altogether 105,558 indictable crimes for a similar period, compared with 103,804 for the whole of 1944. The Press Association reports that this afternoon two youths attempting the second nold-up in Liverpool in less than 24 hours presented a revolver and demanded money from a girl behind the counter at a branch Post Office. The girl set the burglar alarm going y/ith her foot and the youths dashed out into the street and disappeared. Many London banks, jewellers, and business premises are being fitted with a new secret burglar alarm to help to baulk the city’s gangsters. Customs officials have intensified checks for weapons at ports of disembarkation of troops returning from the Continent in an effort to prevent gangsters' from securing guns. More persons are inquiring about joining Scotland Yard’s special constabulary. Already, says the Evening News, the new burglar alarm has enabled Scotland Yard to trap a number of smaller crooks. The device, which is a wartime invention, incorporates a gramo-phone-telephone which calls to the Yard and automatically announces the name, address, and telephone numbers of the premises. The intruder cannot hear the call being made. The latest city crime was reported last night when a steel safe containing £ISOO was stolen from a house in Southgate. Thieves also stole the linoleum from the floors and spirits which the owner had saved up for Christmas.

Londoners are co-operating with the Yard and are telephoning suspicious behaviour. Last night two men were arrested by a radio car four minutes after a call had been made to the Yard.