WAR ON BANDITS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 September 1934, Page 3

WAR ON BANDITS

CRUSADE IN BRITAIN

MOST MODERN METHODS. THE OLD AND THE NEW. Britain has not lagged behind in making itself a hot spot for the gunman, and one of the chief reasons for this is that every law-abiding citizen helps the police in moments of crisis, writes ex-Chief Inspector James Barrett, of Scotland Yard. When Leonard Rowland Hill ended his career on the Sussex Downs he was one of a long line of gunmen who have finally failed to get themselves out of a tight corner. No hunted English gunman has ever escaped from the police netdeath or capture is the fate of . every known fugitive once the chase is in full swing. , Speed is now the great asset of the police, and to realise this fact one has only to look back to the fate of Percy Toplis, a gunman who was wanted .for the murder of a motor-car driver near Andover, Hants, in 1920. Pedal bicycles and the telephone were used in the chase and a motor-car that could attain a ■speed of only 40 miles an hour. All the same the police got their man. After firing several times as his captors closed in, Toplis himself was shot dead by the police. In 1927 P.C. Dainty, a Newark officer, was shot and left lying on the road by a London motorist. The policeman possessed the real instincts of his profession because before he became unconscious, he scrawled on a piece of paper the gunman's car number. The gunman was arrested in his London lodgings and was sent to penal servitude for life. AMERICANS CAPTURED. Occasionally the real gunman from the' United States tries to raise his head in England. It is not so long ago since the members of a gang tried the. game in Devonshire. Their short run was not even a merry one, because they were captured on their first job. Every good policeman shows exceptional staying power in the hunt for a criminal who uses the gun. My men sought no rest in the course of the sharp chase for the murderer of Jacob "Mickey, a taxi cab driver, who was shot dead alongside his vehicle in a Brixton side road; and when I was searching for the murderer of! P.C. Gutteridge my men, again, were fatiguedefying. Everyone knew that the public were behind us in stamping out the gunman menace. It is not an easy job 'to buy firearms in England. There are places abroad where all types of firearms can be bought. But here in this country arms cannot be bought across the counter.. You must give good reasons and be of sound character. In. addition; persons possessing firearms in this country are compelled to register them with the police of the district. The police are for ever on the alert to enforce this Act. RAIDS ON GUN SMUGGLERS. I suppose it is practically impossible to stop all illicit trading in firearms, but the police at the London docks and the English seaports annually make hauls of these weapons. The smugglers seldom form themselves into gangs, because experience has taught them that the game does not pay. Most of the smuggling is done by foreigners reselling firearms bought abroad. Of course, criminals sometimes obtain possession of firearms by stealing them, from registered owners, I have dealt .with many such cases, and when the thieves have been arrested while committing another offence, the weapons have been found in their possession, usually unloaded. In most instances, the thieves presented them at persons to incite fear when making their escape. Even in the short period that has elapsed since I retired, the path of the gunman has been further hampered. In London and the provinces police transport is ever on the look-out. There are now 52 areas in London alone covered by wireless, backed by the telephone, the motor-cycle, the push cycle—all controlled by poliednien whose every action is speeded up by the, march of science. ’ With this in mind it. is hard to believe that it is only thirteen years since motor bicycles and sidecars were placed at ■the disposal of the senior detective of each London division. Before that,, every detective had to utilise the best means of transport he personally could command. And even then the gunman was kept in control. If the'.police forces could not move very fast neither could the lawbreakers. But, as I said before, we always had the public behind us, and when a gunman broke loose he had to contend against every type of obstacle—all tending to his downfall. Before the police forces really took up the impudent challenge of the criminals who roamed the country and flashed or fired revolvers, the motor bandit menace ‘ looked like becoming alarming. Criminals knew that they could dash from place to place, because they were aware that the police had vehicles incapable of great speed. BRAZEN CRIMINALS OVERCOME/ But it now seems to me that the more brazen criminals —the few tough ruffians who were prepared to knock over pedestrians in their wild raids or threaten with firearms—have been overcome. Incidentally, many of the gunmen who are serving penal servitude are comparative youngsters.!- Their idea of life was' that they could frighten the community into providing them with a comfortable living and a good share of excitement thrown in. They went the way of all people who consider that violence in crime pays. It does not. Most of these people will spend the greater part of their lives, in prison if they do not find some less antisocial outlet for their energies. The old-time criminal planned his “jobs”- more alluringly. He travelled by the early morning trains from London to country houses set down for plunder, and when he left the scene of his crime he balked his pursuers by simple methods, such as placing staves round the houses and connecting them with wires; the method was known to the fraternity as “wiring the ground.” In the dark his pursuers fell over each other. He seldom used a gun, and, presumably because of this, the persistent criminal spent most of his life out of prison. ' The gunman of his day was—as to-day—everybody’s enemy.