PRESS AND POLICE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 86, 5 January 1935, Page 6

PRESS AND POLICE

Benefit of Mutual Assistance •

“There is one important and valuable arm of defence and offence that Is sadly neglected. I refer to the lack of efficient co-operation between the police and the public. It is indeed a strange and regrettable fact that there is—and always has been—a strong disinclination in certain police circles to take the public fully and frankly into their confidence,” writes ex-Superintendent Percy Savage In his book of reminiscences, “Savage of Scotland Yard." “When a murder or other grave crime la committed, why should not the public be Informed at once of the essential facts, consistent, of course, with the interests of justice? And yet, what happens? Information is frequently withheld from the Press —the sole medium of communication with the public—and the consequence Is that details which ought to be known are not divulged, false rumours are started, and the investigating officers grope about in an atmosphere of chaos and doubt. “The police want Information. The public have It. Why not effect a working partnership? “It is urged by those who favour the policy of silence that the Press are more concerned with getting a ‘good story* than with the interests of justice, and that they would magnify or distort any facts which were officially supplied. Personally, I think that anybody who is afraid of the Press is afraid of himself. “Newspapers are quite capable of taking care of themselves, and they know full well the limits to which they * can go in any given case. In my capacity as a senior officer, I always used my discretion and gave the Press all the intematlpn I. fifiJlW- Qu not ? single

occasion have I known newspapers to go beyond these facts or to give publicity to facts which I asked them not to mention. As for the ‘good story,’ of course the newspapers want a good story, and the better the story is pre- • sented the more it will be read by the people whose co-operation in the elucidation of a crime is urgently desired. “I could quote cases in which murderers and other criminals have not been caught because the public have not been told points on which their assistance was wanted by the police. The police are not thought-readers or won-der-workers. If they are not told they cannot know. If they do not know, all the scientific aids, all the mechanical devices, all knowledge and experience are in vain. Information first, then common sense, then the resources of science—that is detective work. The fastest motor-car is useless unless the driver knows where he is going.

"But it is not only in the detection of crime that the public could be such a valuable ally of the police. The work of preventing crime—the policemen’s primary duty—would be rendered far more effective if the police enlisted the prompt aid of the Press in warning the public against the wily tricks and devices of criminals and adopted other measures to stifle any particular form of crime before it became epidemic.

“In my opinion, more criminals would be caught and crime would materially decrease if responsible police officers were empowered to see accredited newspaper representatives and explain the various singes in the progress of an investigation. I am certain that the Press would never let th? police down.”