Evening star., 1933-05-21
A FEDERAL POLICE FORCE
By FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

to police work Is the Customs Border
Patrol. This is small organization,
relatively. with q specialized job. The
United States has two long borders
which affords constant temptation to
smugglers. The patrol is constantly on
the alert for violators of the customs
laws. The fourth Federal body engaged
exclusively on police work is the immi-
grafton border patrol. No stories of the
Canadian Northwest Mounted are any
more fascinating than those concern
ing the activities OF this BODY. It's
duties resolve themselves chiefly into en-
forcement of the exclusion acts which
deny admission to the United States of
certain Orientals. Attempts constantly
are being made to smuggle Chinese into
the country, and the canny alertness Of
this organization has kept thousands of
Celestials out.
Secret Service. Bureau of Investiga-
tion. Customs Patrol and immigration
Patrol, then. are the four services en-
gagged solely in police work. But there
is great deal of other police wo-k
done. For example, the Coast Guard,
which was organized originally to pre-
vent frauds upon the revenue and to
save lives and property at sea, has been,
since prohibition. very largely concerned
Wltil POlAIC oNbAFiSJ d6diA1oV AdAAi
ners Rum Row, of the coast, the
rendezvous of ships attempting to land
Illicit liquor, Is hourly watched by
Coast Guard cutters and its vessels pa
troll up and down the coast looking for
offenders. The ships are armed and, as
the newspapers testify, they are not
slow to shoot. The Coast Guard. like the
Secret Service, comes under the
Treasury.
Smuggling Dope and Jewels.
The Narcotic Unit of the Treasury
also has police officers engaged in en-
forcing the Harrison narcotic law. It
is this body of Federal police which Is
engaged in running down the dope ped
dlers. It works, to some extent, in CO.
operation with another Treasury force,
the Customs Inspectors. The latter force
has many of its operatives in foreign
countries. They have ways of inform
ing themselves when attempts at SNUG
Cling are about to be made. If $100, 600
pearl rope is starting for the United
States hidden from declaration. these
detectives are likely to know about 1t,
cabling the information to their col
leagues here. They also give notice OF
secret shipments of Illicit drugs des-
tined for this country.
The Post Once Department maln-
tains q force of Post ONCE Inspectors
whose duty 1t is to enforce the postal
law, gather evidence on the basis OF
which fraud orders are issued, dis
cover abuses Of the mails. guard against
mail robberies and the like. The mill
tary and naval intelligence services and
the secret work of the State Depart
ment are affairs apart and. perhaps.
never would be included in any in
tegrated Federal police
The reorganization idea is that these
and many other services be brought into
one large organization, the Federal
Police. There are 5000 men on Fede-
raj police duty, not counting the Coast
Guard, which has another 5000. The
welding of the whole service into one
force would create an organization
which would develop worldwide pres
tige., Against the idea it has been urged
that special training is required for each
one Of these now Independent services.
However, the Federal police could be
departmentalized and yet have single
directing head.
The day yet may come when the
United States will have q super-Scot-
land Yard.