The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-10-27

| officers of the army and younger sons of
| gentlemen, than among the police had been
shown by experience TO be a fallacv, for six
| such recruits, Mr. Vincent tells US, had been
enrolled as trial OF the system, and the
results in each case were eminently unsatis-
factory He is strongly opposed to perma-
nent employment in detective work, and is
! convinced that the more the uniform and
detective branch of the police service is made
| interchangeable the better.
HOW DETECTIVES ARE HAMPERED.
Detectives, he says, are hampered in their
work "by tine natural hostility on the part
of public feeling in this country to the en-
ployment of those articles for the detection
of crime which naturally suggest them
selves; to the exercising, in fact, of the same
ingenuity against criminals which they
bring to bear against society,"" On this
point he observed that the Home Secretary
| once said, Those who complain of failure
in detection are the first to denounce the
only methods by which it can be effectually
| accomplished" But the greatest obstacle to
! the detection of crime was, he said, in the
INSCRIPTIONS practices of pawnbrokers.
| These, as class, with some honorable eX-
ceptions, would take any article offered to
| them and would give no information after
ward for fear of eliminating themselves.
| The pawnbroker's act amendment bill,
| which the influence of the three golden balls
had prevented from passing last session,
! would, however, work a decided improve
ment, and he urged his hearers to do their
/ utmost to get this measure enacted into law.
Referring to the difficulty of proving guilt,
Mr.. Vincent observed that the detective was
! placed at disadvantage by the great
rapidity with which criminal cases are dis
| posed of in the English courts. An intricate
murder case was cited in illustration. The
| I'D fsta
remands, within six weeks of the arrest. 1t
was a case of purely circumstantial evidence,
| and an acqulttal was the result. But next
| day overwhelming evidence of guilt was
! forthcoming, and the culprit was able to de-
tail, with perfect impunity, how the crime
! had been committed. Notwithstanding these
drawbacks, the returns show that the results
in the detection of crime in Great Britain
are that in about sixty cases out OF every
hundred the offenders are brought to JUS
tlce, the average OF convictions secured being
about rs per cent In the metropolis every
! offense against the criminal law is at once
reported to Mr.. Vincent, who then becomes
responsible for all subsequent proceedings.
| He has under him in the detective depart
ment twenty-five inspectors of advanced
| education, many of them speaking foreign
/ languages and others skilled draughtsmen
or proficients in various accomplishments.
/ These serve at Scotland Yard, and other
officers are distributed among the twenty po-
! lice divisions. Every expense is betrayed
/ from public funds. All gratuties are
reported and a reduction of one-fourth
loi nc ~
uePaI tine1 % !eCi ul'eu ny II o!li
tii9 W nole ser PeIloGlcaiIy caaleu iol III
motion runs throughout the branch by Sc
lection, tempered by seniority The pay
ranges from $40 to So, $50 year.
MR. vINCENT's SUGGESTIONS.
I Under the several heads of the punishment
of crir,e tbe trootpert of disoborcad rrisop.
,r
ers anu lhe re-cohNlctloh Vi PRISONERS MI
| Vincent throws out some very valuable sug
eestions. He would have capital punisb-
-. ...;.1 1,o;,,e. e,,,,,;oo5 49, - ,...
i'ei' Oe4i's oo'i i'iNeu .'''' - avs
as powerful ueterrant 10 Would-pe murder
ers. He would have us remember, however
/ that the restraining value of this kind of
punishment depends upon the certainty of
its infliction. In Great Britain the proper
ton of executions to persons sentenced to
death is about so per cent, whereas in France
it is less than 46 per cent, i'll Austria 2 per
cent, and in Germany only l-5 per cent.
Should the criminal appeal bill when it bel
comes law, reduce the comparative certainty
of capital punishment for murders, Mr.. Vim
cent would then be in favor of reducing the
penalty for this crime to penal servitude for
| life. For acts of personal violence and for
the carrying of revolvers by burglars, he adj
vocates flogging, even in the case of first
offense, but to first offenders of the minor
class, such as 1.-The clerk who embezzles
trihing sum- TO pay debt incurred in
betting transaction" or 'the servant
who yields to temptation and takes
the jeweled ornament from the drawing