Evening star., 1925-05-10
New Police Strategy Must Keep Pace With Organized Grin

- u - >,
Gathering of the names and identity
of known outlaw organizations and
all such information that can be col
lected along this line.
Traffic laws and regulations of the
various States. If the plan goes
through, will be made matters of
record with the national bureau, for
the use of any Jurisdiction lists of
hospitals, asylums, prisons, work
houses, police department rules. or
sanizations and their numerical desig-
nations and annual reports and Stats
tics of all sorts will be placed on file.
The National Bureau of Identifi-
cation will become a clearing house
for any puzzle of the local police what
ever, if the contemplated plans go
through.
But this is not the farthest step
of the fight of the law against or
ganized crime and organized Grim
inals. The chiefs of police and the
Department of Justice are stepping
out for one further move. That is
to check up on International crime.
The details are being handled by the
Department of Justice Bureau of In
vestigation, headed by Chief Hoover.
nEALINGS with international
- crooks today are fraught with
red tape. The Red Tape Detour' is
the characterization given to the
method whereby papers relative to
! the cases of criminals from other
countries are routed. For instance:
A crime occurs in London which has
an American angle. The route is
from Scotland Yard. to the home of
flee. to the foreign office, To the Amer
/ lean Ambassa dor. to the State Depart
ment, To the Department of Justice.
/ to the Bureau of Investigation.
That's the detour.
| The plan now in contemplation is
! to change this detour to a straight
| cut. Feelers have been thrown out
and are finding agreeable acceptance
| to the practice of instituting direct
! contact between the National Identi-
| fication Bureau and Scotland Yard
or any of the leading police agencies
| of any foreign nation. Direct con-
| tact is needed.
J Time is of the essence" Chief
Hoover said. Speed in handling
cases is requisite. If bands of inter
! national crooks are unhampered by
| red tape interchanges. why bind up
the hands of those charged with the
| apprehension of international Grim
inals? Give us an equal show with
! them. They take every advantage
J of the rounda bout state of affairs"
SO. if the new plan goes through.
/ there will be still another function for
| this heart of the criminal l-preventiVe
works of this country-an interna-
| tional function.
From lhe Identification Bureau TO
! Scotland Yard, and vice versa-zip-
and it's done with.
| X
THUS crimes development leads to
i police development. Even locally
| police departments have been through
d mighty evolution during the last 40
years. Take Washington for in
stance:
| Forty years ago everything was in
/ the precincts power. Today there are
! specialized experts for all sorts Of
! crimes.
There are specialized groups in In
| spector Grants detective bureau-an
| automobile squad, a second hand
shop squad. a narcotic squad, spe
cialists on hoid-up work, specialists in
| forgery work. specialists in pick
pocket work. in murder work, in other
lines
In the department as whole there
is now specia lized traffic bureau. a
specialized woman's bureau, a police
school. vice squad and half dozen
other specialized activities.
The criminal has specialized; the
! ponce must
The training of a policeman is far
different thing from the training
given in years gone by. Then it was
a purely practical training. Today
theory is combined with the practi-
cal.
Forty years ago policeman broke
in by pounding The bricks" beside
another policeman. Today he goes
through the police school.
In the course there he hears lee
lures given by detectives who special
iZe in the detection of certain types of
criminals. by finger print experts and
other specialists of the police depart
| ment.
The young policemen study law for
weeks and become generally versed
in their rights. duties and obligations.
So the advance of society has been
marked with the advance of crime:
scientific advances have been made
use of by criminals, but to checkmate
the criminal syndicates and combines
which have sprung up in recent
years police are working along en-
actly similar lines: also making use of
every Improvement which the crimi-
nal utilizes.