Evening star., 1948-06-25

priation to put clerk-stenographel
in each precinct on the day shift
They will partially replace police
men now spending hours using the
hunt -and-p peck" system to type out
the required reports.
The complaint slip made out by
the complaint clerk is the starting
point of the new system OF con-
trolling all reports from police head
quarters.
Slip Gives Basic Data.
There's slip for everything that
happens from murder to COM
plant of trash in the alley. On it
are stamped the time the call came
in. the time the dispatcher started
police action and the time the scout
car reported back. The slip also
shows whether a further report
must be made on the incident.
For instance, a complaint slip
that bore the notation woman on
ground. may be dead required nc
further report once the scout car
reported back: mo action needed
Sun bath" The slip would 60 to a
statistical control room to be filed
and to show up later in complaint
statistics.
But here's the other type: A
complaint clerk got call on a
fight. The scout car reported "One
arrest for drunk and concealed
weapon
The slip Travelled on to one of
the telephone operators with direct
lines to the precincts. The operator
noted a further report was needed
He telephoned the precinct, gave
them the central complaint room
number on the slip and got pre-
cinct number from them. He noti-
field the precinct that a report was
expected within "a hours.
Checked Against Reports.
The slip then went to the statisti-
cal control room. Here, another
team took over the checkup duties
Had the precinct filed its report
the proper report? Complaint slips
were checked against reports for the
precinct by numbers. Here was the
one on the fight: Complainant
states an unknown white man drew
a straight razor on him. Okay with
the arrest of =" a."
Now the fight report from the
precinct started its travels. In the
flleroOm, a clerk typed up a card
in quintuplicate. Into one file went
lhe card by the name of the COM
plainant. If he calls later. the in
cident can be traced back to the
offense report by the Ger number
beside his name. Another card
went into a new file, indexed by
street and house number. Other
copies went to the precinct, the
Detective Bureau and the squad.
The report, still travelling, now
went to statistics-there to be
translated into a set of holes on a
punch card.
Not Fool Proof Yet.
There the story of the fight ended
but if it had been an unsolved rob-
berry, murder or other open case
the report would have been fol-
lowed by other reports.
These are the supplementary OF
progress reports. The department
has not yet worked out a fool
proof method of being sure these
come in, but the police have been
ordered to make them. One day
this week, 1872 supplementary re-
ports were made. The future plan
is to keep the open cases separated
from the closed ones so that a daily
check can be made on whether
progress is being reported within
seven days and within a month as
required.
The double check on reports
means more paper work for police
men and several new operations re-
quiring additional staff. but In
spector Truscott believes this meth
Cd plugs the loopholes in the old
reporting system and gives head