Evening star., 1933-02-19

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quarters thinks about prospects may be
gauged from the fact that on January
he started to form a sharpshooting
force. Twenty men from each. of the
% metropolitan police divisions are be-
ing instructed in the use of the modern
magazine pistol. BY this time next year
a considerable body of the London po-
lice will be efficient marksmen, able to
hit their target with rapidity and pre-
ciSion.
Anticipatory measures, these. In the
war Trenchard had to deal with an
enemy who right until the last year
was always one Jump ahead in machine
design and fighting tricks. That taught
him to think ahead all the time. At
present Londons police are not armed.
Two or three pistols are kept at main
stations-and few of the police know
how to use them. Trenchard is taking
a jump ahead of the enemy. If the
underworld starts to shoot it will find
the police more than a match for it.
Killers are not yet on the increase.
The murder rate remains well under
100, its peak figure. But the number
of unsolved murders shows a tendency
to rise. There is now legacy for the
whole country of SO from 1929. This is
a record in this century in Britain. But
It was in 1929 that the police held a
girl for five hours for questioning Up
roar in Parliament! A royal commission
sat. New rules were passed prohibiting
the police from interrogating suspects.
A person up for questioning must now
be told exactly what it is all about. Fur
ther, he must be informed that he need
not answer if he does not want to. It
was a lucky day for murderers when
those new rules came INTO force.
In the great six-month search for the
killers of Police Constable Gutteridge.
the only policeman murdered in the exc
cution of his duty in 10 years, the police
wanted the killers gun. Without it they
could not complete the chain of evidence
which would convict the killer if and
when they got him. Every revolver that
came into the hands of the police went
to Scotland Yard. The war Office CO.
operated. A weird and wonderful col
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folk in Illicit possession of guns furtively
dropped them. They were fished out of
rivers and off waste land and sent to
the Yard. Their owners were hunted
out and questioned.
RROWNE, the killer, failed to hear of all
this questioning If news had come
to him he would never have kept the
revolver which had killed Gutteridge
among the half-dozen in his garage. IF
the present regulations had been in force
then, it is almost certain Browne would
have survived to slay again. For the
police would have had to say to every
person interrogated: II am making in
quiries into the Gutteridge murder case,
and I want to know anything you can
tell me about it. It Is serious matter,
and must warn you to be careful what
you say"
In these circumstances many of those
who gave information would have said
nothing, and the police would have been
powerless to make them speak. The ex-
convict who finally put the sleuths on
Brownies trail would have been within
his rights in refusing to answer the POI
lice questions, and Kennedy, Brownies
accomplice, would probably not have
made the statement which sent him to
the scaffold along with Browne.
People err who think that criminals
know the value of silence and won't talk
anyway. A guilty conscience and yell
low streak go with the vast majority of
killer make-ups. Confronted by de-
tective who has been hunting criminals
and dealing with criminals for half
lifetime they talk. Usually they talk