CRIME DETECTION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20649, 25 June 1935, Page 5

CRIME DETECTION.

Scotland Yard’s Wonderful Organisation. REVELATIONS BY EX-OFFICER. " It will be a revelation to my readers to learn that I had serving under me just one hundred plain clothes officers. One hundred detectives in a square mile! It almost sounds like overcrowding. But the following pages will reveal how peculiar and varied were the crimes enacted in the City of London, as to render it necessary for us to house the densest police population in the whole world,” writes ex-Chief Detective-Inspector Ernest Nicholls, in his book, “ Crime Within the Square Mile.” There have been many books written by the famous detectives, inspectors and other officials of Scotland Yard, and it is sometimes overlooked that the City of London itself has a wonderful organisation for the prevention of crime. Many of the cases cited by exInspector Nicholls naturally have a financial background, and the cases of Whitaker Wright, Bottomley, and others of the type appear in this entertaining volume. Mr Nicholls, however, does not confine himself to a record of cases. “In the police service we have several aids to man-hunting about which the public hears but very little and knows less,” says the author. “ There are about 7000 police stations in the country, and within five minutes of a crime being discovered details can be broadcast to all stations large and small from Scotland Yard. Wireless is becoming one of our most effective weapons; before long, television and telephotography will be added to our crime fighting arms. The whole world, if need be, can be informed in a few minutes of a crime, and usually with added details of the personality of the perpetrators. Police Newspapers. “ Scotland Yard are newspaper printers and publishers of no mean >

order. The department prints all its own official publications, from its Year Book to an evening newspaper. Needless to say, they are not on sale; to possess a copy is punishable under the Official Secrets’ Act. There is the Police Almanac, which can be termed the police officers’ vade mecum. “It is a very valuable work of ready reference for an officer, whether he be a village policeman or a chief constable. The weekly Illustrated Circular is the rogues’ picture gallery. The movement of every known rogue temporarily out of prison and on ticket-of-leave is recorded in the Circular, and many crimes are frustrated by the aid of information contained therein. “ The Yard’s earliest effort at a newspaper was called Ilue and Cry; to-day it is known as the Police Gazette. Herein the * big ’ crook comes -tinder editorial attention. It is a bi-weekly publication and reaches every police station in England and Wales. It is the ‘ Who’s Who ’ of crime and criminals, and is copiously illustrated with photographs and finger-prints of ticket-of-leav§ men who have failed to report, or dangerous aliens who have disappeared. Daily Information. “ The Yard’s daily effort is entitled Orders. This is also circulated to every police station and the contents read out each day at parade before men go out on their beats. Other news-sheets issued from time to time are the Stolen Car and Bicycle List, the Pawnbroker’s List and the Black List. “ The police evening newspaper of several editions daily is Informations. It is printed on fast rotary presses, as up-to-date as can be found in any newspaper office. It is distributed just like newspapers, in fact, by vans and motorUsually it runs to eight pages per edition, and at a busy period will contain upward of 500 separate items of police news and information. Up and down tfie country are ISI separate police forces employing over 60,000 men, varying from forces of 25 upward. The total expenditure per annum is'over £20.000,000. and the income over ten and a-quarter million pounds. Every force in the country can draw on ‘ C.R.O.’ for information.

The Criminal Record Office at the Yard costs £15,000 a year to keep up. The Finger-Print Bureau. '* The finger-print Bureau identifies each year about 300,000 criminals by their ‘ dabs,’ and guarantees to supply any police station with information within 24 hours. It is a 64.000,000.000 to 1 chance of two persons having identical finger-prints. “ It has over half a million records, all tabulated and filed, and over two hundred thousand photographs of criminals. It is always up-to-date, and even dead men are eliminated as the information comes to hand. The modus operandi index is aptly described bv\ its title. This is but a slight insight into some of the greatest assets of the police.”