WANTED: POLICEMEN

Southland Times, Issue 23438, 19 February 1938, Page 13

WANTED: POLICEMEN

By

L R. M.

LONDON. Over 100 years ago Sir Robert Peel created the London Metropolitan Police Force to “preserve the peace, prevent robberies and other felonies, and apprehend offenders against the peace.” At first these policemen were called “Peelers,” after Peel, but soon people started calling them “bobbies,” after Robert; and bobbies they are today. As I write there are 21,000 of them preserving the peace for some 9,000,000 people in 700 square miles of metropolis within a radius of about 15 miles of Scotland Yard. These policemen are wonderful, as you have heard; so it was with surprise and alarm that Londoners learned some time ago of a new Government plan to train public school boys and university men for officers in the world’s most famous police force.

When Peel drafted his plan for the London police force he insisted that it should be democratic, that every officer up to and including superintendent should be drawn from the ranks. That rule held until 1935, when the Government decided that the time had come to establish a police college and train educated men for the upper ranks of the force. There are already lots of London bobbies who speak without dropping an “h.” It is feared that by the time the next Coronation comes round pop-eyed visitors from the ends of the world will be given directions by police with an Oxford accent. But Scotland Yard allayed my fears today. Scotland Yard, as you’ve surely read, is a vast, grim building facing the Thames on one side and Whitehall on the other. It isn’t Scotland Yard at all, really. It’s New Scotland Yard. The real, or old, Scotland Yard, so called because some Scottish king spent the night there many centuries ago, is a quarter of a mile away up the street . . . Anyway, I slid cautiously through a little green door on the Embankment today and asked Scotland Yard’s spokesman what was all this about the fascistification of London’s famous police. “What do you mean, fascistification?” replied the Yard’s spokesman—who hasn’t got an Oxford accent himself. “Well,” I said, “they say the Government wants to create in the police force an officer or fascist class that will be

out of sympathy with the common people in time of red ruin and the breaking up of laws.” “That is such arrant nonsense,” said Scotland Yard, “that I do not propose to discuss it at all.” The New System For over a century the bobby has been London’s guardian angel—friendly, reliable, all-knowing, sympathetic and almost completely incorruptible. It is true that he knew his place in the British caste system, and would always treat an upper class drunk with more deference and consideration than a lower class drunk. But on the whole he has been as willing to crack a fascist disturber of the peace over the head as a communist rioter—though far more Communists than Fascists have had their skulls broken in the last few years. So, with such an excellent police force, why is it being reformed? I “To meet the demands of the times,” said Scotland Yard. “Remember, there has been no change in the structure of the force for over i century. Today we need a younger and more highly trained staff of officers, and a more active and energetic body of constables. We need specialists in radio work, in traffic problems and in criminal investigation. Criminals are more efficient than they used to be, and we need more efficient policemen to cope with them. “Under the present system men are too old when they become officers. They have to spend a certain number of years as constables before they become sergeants, and so on through the various ranks of station sergeant, inspector, sub-divisional iispector and chief inspector. So we have established a police college at Hendon to train officers.”

“The police college started with 60 students,” he explained, “and about 30 new ones will be accepted each year. But for the first few years men already in the police force nay apply for the police college training. Two-thirds of the students are drawn from our own ranks right now.” But in the future they will be almost all educated men of the upper middle classes. Because what are the qualifications for entrance to the college? Well, the chief qualification, apart from being at least five feet eight inches tall and having “a girth that reaches 35 inches w^en expanded,” is what is call- • . ine school’s certificate. That is matriculation or university entrance.

The physical requirements for the new bobbies are not difficult. A candidate must be of a good average height and have a certain girth, as we saw; and he must not have various ailments such as hydrocele, varicocele and inveterate dentition, whatever those things are. Furthermore, he must have at least 12 points of articulation in his teeth. But he doesn’t have to be a Sandow or gorilla. “He’s got to be smart, though,” said Scotland Yard. “We want clever, even brilliant, men. Before a man can enter the police college he has to pass pretty stiff examinations in English, general knowledge, history, mathematics, science and languages.” Languages? Are the London bobbies to learn these foreign lingoes? Are we to have London bobbies quoting Latin tags as they make arrests? .... “Not necessarily,” said Scotland Yard. “Languages will be optional to certain other subjects. But it’s very useful to have a few police officers who know foreign languages, even Latin and Greek.” There are even such options as physics, chemistry and biology, and I gathered from some of the questions I saw that future bobbies will have to know about such things as anabolism and katabolism, germination, the broad development features of the broad bean and the work of soil bacteria, earthworms and protozoa.

Age Of Specialists This seems to be the age of specialists, and Scotland Yard even wants experts in things like mechanics and calculus. The equilibrium of bodies in two dimensions, link polygons, harmonic motion, the rotation of rigid bodies about a fixed axis and the action of crank mechanisms—these are a few of the examination questions. . . . But after all, London’s bobbies were always noted for their harmonic motion and ability to deal with crank mechanisms. During their two years’ course at Hendon the budding officers undergo an intensive course of training which ranges from history of British law and forensic medicine to ju-jutsu and how to arrest a struggling and angry woman. They study 21 subjects. One of them, criminal investigation and detection, includes detective training,, crime indexing, fingerprints, photography, scientific aids to detection and plan drawing. The Home Office claims that the new’ system “will help to maintain the high reputation the Metropolitan Police : Force holds in the eyes of the world, .

and to promote an increasing sense of esprit de corps and high standard of conduct.” Their law course alone would mean two years’ work for many people. It includes constitutional history, central and local government, common law and statute law,, evidence and court procedure, as well as the routine technique of issuing warrants and summonses and making arrests. They have to study traffic problems, radio and wireless, police finance, drill and physical training, first aid, crime prevention, public meetings and riots, registration of aliens. They have to know by heart every detail of a constable’s everyday duties. Finally, when they graduate, they have to spend a year learning at first hand the work of the London policeman. “How long does it usually take under the old system,” I asked, “for a police constable to rise to an inspectorship?” “I have never known it to happen in less than 10 years,” said Scotland Yard. “And that gives you an idea of the need for the new system. Formerly a man was getting on in years before he became even an inspector; and inspector is not a high rank. In fact, the only lower ones are station sergeant, sergeant and constable.” And it has another idea for lowering the average age and increasing the efficiency of the force. It has decided on short-term enrolment for one-quarter of the police force. Men will enlist for 10 years only and then retire and seek other employment. That is what they hoped, but the idea isn’t popular at all and very few are enlisting for the short term.

So it seems that the London bobby you go to when you are lost or want to know the way to Buckingham Palace will be much the same tomorrow as he was yesterday. He will do his work for only £3 or £4 a week, yet remain honest. He will breathe noxious gases in the world’s worst traffic jams for hours on end, and yet be always helpful and courteous. He will go on taking down statements from malefactors such as “Something went pop inside me ’ead, so I picked up a knife from the kitchen and I done ’im in.” He will continue to stride slowly and with dignity, the epitome of law and majesty .... And if ever you hear a traffic cop talking with a hot-potato-in-the-mouth accent, you will know he’s not really a London bobby, but just a police college graduate learning his A, B, C.