MOBILE SQUADS

Southland Times, Issue 22296, 11 April 1934, Page 7

MOBILE SQUADS

POSITION IN NEW ZEALAND. POLICE COMMISSIONER’S COMMENT. (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, April 10. Commenting on the statements that consideration must eventually be given to the provision of mobile squads in the principal New Zealand cities to cope with the methods of modern criminals and that the existing facilities are inadequate, the Commissioner of Police (Mr W. G. Wohlmann) said: “The inadequacy must be relative. The whole population of New Zealand is not much more than that of Glasgow. I think it is questionable whether there is a mobile squad in the whole of Scotland. We have to bear in mind, in addition to the relatively small population of New Zealand, its geopraphical conformation, its absence of large cities, its relatively uniform diffusion of population and its insular position. The problems in New Zealand differ from those in the largely populated countries. The inauguration of mobile squads in London, and, I believe, in Melbourne and Sydney, were to meet the menace of organized gangs of criminals, which we have not in this country. At the same time New Zealand has some provision for moving its men at night and the question of adding to that is one that has not been lost sight of and is receiving consideration.”