The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-12-07

More than 300 officers and auxil- iaries of the Waterbury and subur- ban police departments attended the last of the 1944 FBI law en- forcement conferences held in. St. Johns auditorium last night. Frank V. Battle, Special Agent of the FBI New Haven, coordinated the confer ence program.
 Roger F. Gleason, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in the State of Connecticut, talked on the im- portant problem '"The Responsibil- ities of Law Enforcement Officers in Handling Escaped Prisoners of War A prisoner of war camp was recent ly instituted at Bradley Field in Connecticut, where several hundred German prisoners are being used to assist in handling the Army work projects on the Base. MT. Gleason pointed out that this brings the problem of escapes very close to the peace officers of the State and em- phasized the necessity of every pat rolman being ready to meet his add ed responsibility in this field should escapes occur. Tt is no secret that there are hundreds of thousands of prisoners in camps scattered throughout the United States at this time," MT. Gleason said, and the escapes run into the hundreds. Each one must be handled as an individ- ual problem and the individual off, Ger coming upon it should know under what regulations prisoners of war are handled" MT. Gleason out lined the Geneva Treaty, pointing out the necessity for living up to the rules in the handling of prisoners so that our American boys will receive the same treatment. The prisoner of war talk included a detailed outline of the procedures to be used in the handling of the pursuit and search of escapes. The Agent in Charge brought out clearly the fact that the handling of the incarceration of the prisoner was an Army matter but because of coordination of the U S. Army and the Justice Department, the direction of the investigation to locate escapees becomes a respon- sibility of the FBI and the local law enforcement officers of the country. MT. Gleason pointed out examples of individuals who have been able to travel many thousands of miles once the escape is effected and cited as an instance the recent incident where two prisoners of war were lo- cated in the hold of a Spanish merchant ship in Philadelphia. The question of accomplices was also stressed and MT. Gleason pointed out the necessity for thoroughly fol- lowing down any possibility of in- dividualS in this country assisting in the escape or in assisting the prisoners after they had gained their liberty. The outstanding ex- ample of what can happen in this field was the Max Stephan case in Detroit where Stephan, @ German born restaurant keeper, was con- vtcted of treason because of the as- sistance that he offered Peter KruR. a German Luftwaffe member, who had escaped from a camp in Can. ada. The Agent in Charge pointed out that the swift justice meted out to stephan had e very telling ef- feet in controlling any similar ac. tlvity.
 ''Car Thefts"
 Norman II. McCabe, who is member Of the Training and Tn. spection Division of the FBf, at Washington, illustrated his talk on "Car Thefts' with some very in. terestlng charts on statistics and tsehniques in the handling of this extensive police problem. Mir. Mo. Cabe pointed out that law enforce. ment was doing a very good fob ln the recovering of stolen cars in that ln the first six months Of iaae, 00.T per cent of all stolen cars were ro. covered by police eTeanlr1tions Of ln1 nallnn TIN fHFat nI1n nffarHod