The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-12-06
By MILTON BRONNER NEA Service Staff Correspondent


 London, Dec. 6.-Scotland Yard thanks to fact and also to detective fiction and drama-is probably the best known police headquarters in the world. But unless you are a high police official or a suspictcd criminal whom the Yard wishes to interrogate, thechances are very slim for an inspection of this famed outfit.
 The other day this correspondent was given the courtesy of a run through the Yard. That part which he was permitted to see dissipates much of the mystery that has been woven around Scotland Yard.
 The success of the institution is due in great part to the use of science and to capacity to take in- finite pains in the making of its records. On top of that, of course, comes the shrewd thinking of its crack personnel.
 Scotland Yard has a record of every one of the million-odd crin- inals or suspects in Great Britain. This record is indeXed and cross indexed in marvellous way. For in stance in one room there is an in- dex by physical peculiarities. If the man wanted is blined in one eye or has a mole on his forehead or a cyst in his neck or a finger of his left hand, the index will show all the known criminals with that peculiarity.
 But that index may yield quite a long list of men. Then the police turn to another index. If the man wanted is burglar, there is an index as to burglars which specifies the methods they employ to enter a house. There is still another index which shows the various names under which the criminal has lived. The field is thus narrowed down to a few men.
 Then there is an inspection of the records of those men. These records show their photographs, their finger prints and all about their lives and ways. The list of suspects is mar moved down some more, because the chances are that some of the men in the list are shown by the records to be serving prison sentences. This group can't include the man who did the latest crime.
 The finger print department has upwards of a million records, all duly indexed. Inspector Cherill said that recently the Yard had intro duced a unique new system of ex- amining its records. Under this they can tell within less than minute whether the finger print o1 suspect is in their gallery of prints taken from the fingers of men ac- tually convicted of previous crime.
 Connected with this division is the photographic department, whic | makes some 125, ,000 photos of faces and finger prints each year. The department also has several flying laboratories in cars which can be rushed to the scene of a crime SC that photos may be taken at once.
 The metropolitan area of greater London is TOO square miles within g radius of IS miles from Charine Cross. Twenty thousand men police it.
 In addition there are 70 police cars equipped with wireless tele- phones. Some of these are openly police cars. Others are the so-calleo @ cars"-disguised as private ve- hicles. They are all directed from the Information Room.
 Another interesting place is the map room. Here are large wall maps showing the entire London area Every time preventable crimes have been committed, flags of certain colors are stuck in the appropriate places in the map. This applies only to preventable crimes. The Police Inspectors of every London division can come to this room, study this map, learn at glance the kino of crimes committed in their divis- ion, and decide upon methods te lessen law breaking.