SCOTLAND YARD

Waipa Post, Volume 51, Issue 3694, 6 December 1935, Page 5

SCOTLAND YARD

NEVER SLEEPS.

THIRTY WIRELESS CARS IN NIGHT PATROL.

Scotland Yard’s crime-fighting night service has never been so highly organised as now—and conferences are taking jilace to improve it still further. There are now 30 wireless equipped patrol cars on duty throughout the night, dotted here and there all over London. Their movements can be altered at a second’s 'notice from Scotland Yard, the nerve centre in control of the crime preventative forces throughout the sleepingmetropolis

I have driven through London at 3 a.m. (writes a special correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph), and at regular intervals have come across the police cars, cruising slowly, a man at the back with headphones, ever alert for the message which may send them hurrying to a burglary or other crime.

In outlying suburbs, aiso, 10 or 12 miles from Central London, these cars are met. The metropolitan area has been divided up in such a way that no part is left unguarded. The moment a warning is received at Scotland Yard’s information room of a robbery, car stealing, attack, or other crime, the relevant facts are wirelessed to the patrol cars. A senior detective and an assistant come on duty at 11 p.m., ready to deal with any emergency, while the official re-cords—-finger-prints, photographs of known crooks, characteristics of their methods, and other information—are now instantly available at any hour. Apart from the patrol cars, the Flying Squad are often out on their “lawful occasions,'’ just as ready to take part in any sudden emergency. To complete the chain, the uniformed constable, walking silent streets, is often as much in touch with events as the men in Scotland Yard’s wireless room.

The flashing light of a police box may attract his attention, and a telephone call at once gives him facts such as a few months ago he may not have learned for some hours.

All these precautions have a double effect. Crime is discouraged, and, once news of one is received, the crimefighting forces concentrate on the area so quickly that the chances of detection are considerably increased.