Evening star., 1934-02-20
The Battle Against Crime.

The administration has started the
new deal in the war against crime
and organized criminals with the
presentation to Congress of ten bills,
the effect of which, if enacted. would
be to enlarge the Federal Govern
ment's jurisdiction over certain types
of law violation, modify or amend
rules of evidence which hamper prose-
cutors to the advantage Of criminals
and eliminate the restrictions in the
pursuit of criminals hitherto laid
down by State boundary lines.
These bills, now in the Judiciary
Committees of both houses, repre-
sent the result of study carried
on for many months by Attorney
General Cummings, Raymond Moley,
Edgar Hoover, Senator Copeland and
the special Senate committee OF
which he is chairman, and Assistant
Attorney General keenan,, who prose-
cuted some of the kidnapping cases
and who heads the Department of
Justice Criminal Division. Hundreds
of suggestions of all sorts were, OF
course, placed before these men. The
proposed legislation is in the nature
of a compromise between those who
have been inclined to advocate
national police force, which would
supersede local police, and those who
have been jealous of local authority
and antagonistic to any extension OF
Federal powers.
The aim of the proponents of the
legislation has manifestly been to
strike at some Of the chief evils as
sociated with organized crime, and
to close some of the traditional loop
holes in the laws against crime, but
at the same time to preserve in full
all past authority of local govern
nents to deal with their own police
problems Thus the new laws con-
template gun toting and unauthorized
possession OF a gun as Federal Of
fense. but permit the legitimate own
ership of firearms if certain regula-
tions, including the f1ngerprinting OF
owners, are complied with. Posses
sion of stolen property, fleeing from
one Jurisdiction to another to escape
prosecution for felony, robbing Fed
eral Reserve Banks and interstate
TRANSFORMATION of armored cars are
made Federal of1enses. The Federal
Government, by these laws alone,
would be given the jurisdiction 1t
now lacks to take up the pursuit
and prosecution of criminals. In the
proposed extension of Federal juris-
diction much Of the conflict and
jealousies between local governments
would be eliminated. The proposed
modification, amendments and rules
of evidence would remove some OF
the legal barriers to just prosecu-
ton of the law that have come to
be the safeguard Of criminals and
their smart lawyers.
Appalled, by the spread Of crime in
the United States, there have been
many who wished to transfer the
chief burden of criminal law en-
forcement to the Federal Govern
ment and to set up a Federal police
force that would cover the country.
One idea, more picturesque than prac-
tical, was to make an American
Scotland Yard" of the Department Of
Justice Division of Criminal Investi-
CATION, in the hope that its work
would equal in fact the glamorous
work Of the London bureau in fiction.
It would seem that the legislation
which has been proposed conceives
D reasonable and helpful extension
Of Federal authority, maintaining un-
impaired, at the same time, the au-
thority and responsibility of the local
police forces. Conditions certainly
demand more Capitalization of police
authority and an adequately equipped
Federal police force to make it
effective.