MOTOR BANDIT MENACE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 471, 4 June 1932, Page 22 (Supplement)

MOTOR BANDIT MENACE.

MOVE TO CHECK CRIME WAVE. TASK FOR FLYING SQUAD. The British police authorities are determined that the present wave of crime shall -be broken and the public perturbation swiftly allayed. A series of unsolved murder mysteries in London, innumerable raids on shops and warehouses, highway robberies with violence, daring burglaries at .town mansions and in the suburbs and the country, ingenious frauds of infinite variety—all these and many more have been the subject of recent conferences of police officials. Motor bandits—young and determined criminals for the most part—are responsible for the greater portion of this alarming outbreak of crime in London and the country. The first tiling to be done is to put an effective check on the activities of these roving bands of lawbreakers. In London, alone, no fewer than ten motor cars are stolen on an average every day. Many of them are eventually recovered after being abandoned. It is a reasonable assumption that they are used by bandits and discarded at the conclusion of their criminal expeditions. Special Look-out. Flying Squad cars, speeding here and there at a wireless command from headquarters, have waylaid and captured some of the most desperate of the gangs, but they need reinforcement. It is probable that the mobile police, now that they have been released from “mothering” motorists and summoning them for acts of thoughtlessness, will be set the task of catching criminals. The strength of the mobile police is about 400. and the suggestion is that they should patrol main roads during certain hours of the night and maintain a special look-out for motor bandits. It is thought that tlie mere presence, in uniform, of these policemen in fast cars and motor combinations will exercise a wholesome moral effect and cause bandits to consider the risk of detection too great to be taken. An increased number of police patrols on pedal bicycles has been sanctioned in some of the outer suburban districts. Further improvements liavp been made in the ordinary “beat” system. With regard to the country generally, a distinct advance; has been made by county constabularies in the methods adopted for the prevention and' detection of crime. Not the leagfc of these is the recognition by chief

constables of the valuable assistance which the public can render when full details of a crime are supplied to newspapers.