The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1909-07-28
u. S. ONLY NATION
WHERE THE THIRD
DEGREE SURVIVES
Police Citcng American Police Methods Predicts
That Rad VIII Be Demanded Unless
Conditions

| "Unless police conditions in
American cities improve, the peo-
lple will demand radical changes
perhaps as England made under
Peel, when it put the London po-
lice under the control of the ma
ltional government.
This is the prediction Of Sir
Robt. Anderson, V. G. B., retired
head of the famous Scotland Yard,
in recently published article. Sir
Robert has been called the great
est policeman in Europe" and is
continually being borrowed by for
eign governments. He Is an ex-
lpert in police regulation.
Condemning. the third degree"
as barbaris. and asserting that the
American people do not trust their
police, Sir Robert ends with q
short, significant statement of the
effectiveness of London police.
In the Metropolitan police dis
trict live 7,250.000 people. Last
year there were IL murders, 35
cases of manslaughter, SO rob-
berries, SAT burglaries in all that
vast territory.
There is much for city officials
and police officers to think about
| in Sir Roberts article, which fol-
lows:
BY Sir Robt. Anderson, X. @. b.
To British police officials the
revelation of the third degree"
methods, as they are called, used
Iby the American police to extract
evidence from persons accused of
crime, seem to SAVIOR of oriental
|barbarism.
Even the French system of ques-
tioning prisoners, though abhor-
rent to British notions. affords
neither precedent nor parallel in
America. In France the interro-
cation of an accused person is al
formal magisterial inquiry. The
magistrate sits at one side of the
table, the prisoner at the other.
An official stenographer attends tOl
report the proceedings. Even with
these precautions the system isl
liable to great abuses, and only
la few years ago prominent mag
|istrate was summarily dismissed
for having recourse to methods of
1.-THE kind which the American POI
lice are said to adopt to wear out
land bully the accused.
In England no investigation of
this kind is tolerated. A too COM
|municative prisoner is checked by
la warning that what he says may
|be used against him. An intelii-
|gent police officer will encourage
his prisoner to talk, but he must
mot question him and any abuse of
Ibis opportunities of getting infor-
|mation in this way would be Sc
verely dealt with.
These old-fashioned ways that
characterize the English police adj
ministration have on result which
visitors to. England often notice
with surprise-the police are the
friends of the people.
When an Englishman. strange in
London, applies to the London po-
lice for aid OF any kind, the par
ticulars of his vase are usually |
to the police of his
home town. Experience has Prov
ed that If a man objects to reve-
Iations of his affairs to his own
police there is generally a sinister
motive for his objections.
Americans, however. do noti
come under this rule. TransatIan-f
tic visitors whoare men of high |
character and excellent reputel
often protest against the practice.
They declare that the American
police will use the information
to blackmail them on their return
home.
/ do not assume that such fears
are well founded. | merely state
the faet--for 1t Is fact, within
my own experience of police adj
ministrafion In London that
Americans have no confidence In
the police of their own country.
The Metropolitan police system
OF London was created by great
statesman and administrator Sir