Catching Criminals by Radio

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 857, 28 December 1929, Page 18

Catching Criminals by Radio

DETROIT SHOWS THE WORLD HOW THE MICROPHONE AND MOTOR-CAR CAN COMBINE TO PUT POLICEMAN ON SCENE IN TIME TO TRAP LAW BREAKERS IN ACT OF CRIME ...

SHE midnight train from Detroit has just passed. Whistling its way into the night, the blurring • lights of its windows and I the roar of its passage send startled birds and small creatures scurrying for cover in that desolate fringe of the big city (writes Harry Goldberg in the San Francisco •‘Chronicle’*).

The whistle and roar awaken a man who has fallen asleep on the couch in the isolated house near the tracks. The illuminated dial of his wrist watch shows it is bedtime. Just one last look round, one whiff of cool night air before he retires.

Out on the porch he can barely make out the deep shadows cast by the pale moon. As he taps a cigarette on the porch rail, he detects a movement along the shore. Straining his eyes, he makes out two shadows moving furtively about the brush. Nearby is another shadow, a bulkier blotch, evidently a parked car.

Suddenly the two shadows merge with a third; there is a sudden movement, a sharp, thin cry, a splash. The shadows move toward the larger blotch—but there are only two. The third has disappeared. There is the sound of a starting motor and the bulky blotch moves from under the trees, gains speed and disappears. Transfixed with terror, the man on the porch hesitates. He is torn between the urge to aid and the natural instinct to let the underworld bury its mysteries unmolested and in its own fashion.

After the first wave of horror has passed, he hurries indoors and telephones the police department. Immediately he is connected with the police radio broadcasting station. There the sergeant relays the information on the department’s own low wave length Instantly, throughout the wide expanse of the city, every one of the radio police cars is picking the alarm from the air on its own sealed receiving set. One of the cars, patrolling its beat near the scene of the attempted crime, races toward the spot as it continues to receive the remainder of the meagre message.

Seventy seconds after the receipt of the alarm and before the man on the porch has a chance to reach the river bank, the police cruiser comes to a stop under the trees. The man in the river is fished out, sputtering and very much alive. This is but one of many examples cited from the amazing new chapter being written in the annals of police work by the automobile radio. To the police of Detroit goes the credit for ushering in this new era of criminal investigation. They have welded the radio and motor-car into one of the most effective weapons ever devised to combat crime. This is what the commissioner of the Detroit Police Department has to say of his remarkable experiment: “Snaring criminals in a radio network, woven by broadcasting to radioequipped pursuit cars, has become a matter of seconds. Seconds are precious to the law-breaker. They spell the difference between escape and capture. The wider the margin of time, the better his chances to escape apprehension. “By the use of radio we are catching the criminal red-handed. We are eliminating the introduction of circumstantial evidence in trials by Indisputable proof of guilt. "Economically, we are cutting down the cost of law enforcement by

‘catching the crook with the goods,’ instead of getting him after a long chase. “We have quickened and lengthened the arm of the law. We have synchronised the arrest with the depredation. Instead of trailing behind in the criminal’s dust, we are as near abreast of him as it is humanly possible to be. “Murderers have been caught at the scene of the crime before they had a chance to dispose of their weapons. Burglars have been captured while \ still piling up their loot in homes. "Bewildered auto thieves have I gasped as a police cruiser roared I alongside of them a few moments after j they had stolen a car. Speeding hit-run drivers have been captured and returned to the spot where they had run ! down and left their helpless victim a j few seconds before.” Detroit has taken a lesson from war ! colleges. It has applied to its own ] tactics the emphasis upon science and speed. In order to inject even more speed into its already unmatched mobility, the department has just strengthened is war fleet by 47 new- radio-equipped cruisers, especially built with the

copper-wire-mesh antenna concealed within the roof structure.

Detroit was hampered for a long time because it failed to receive permission to operate its own sending station. Police alarms had to be sent through a regular local commercial studio. Besides breaking in on entertainment programmes, those alarms served to attract great crowds to the scene of a crime and also served to warn criminals who happened to be listening-in. There were other serious objections to the use of a commercial station for the broadcasting of alarms. One evening more than a year ago an officer of the Detroit police was strolling down one of the city streets. Presently he was mildly startled to hear the honeyed strains of “Dreaming Alone in the Twilight” issuing from a parked policevcar. Edging toward the car, he peered around from the rear. There, huddled over the set in the back seat, was the crew just tuning-in to a distant station. That incident ended the era of selective sets for tse police department.

“In spite of numerous setbacks and discouragements, we persisted in our efforts,” says the commissioner. "Several years of hard, unrelenting toil was at last rewarded. In Lhe spring of 192 S our radio began to function satisfactorily. “I do not think that I exaggerate when I say that if time permitted me

to go into the history of each important arrest effected by means of police radio in Detroit during the last 12 months, I would probably relate to you the most spectacular series of criminal apprehensions in the history of our profession. “I could tell you the story of the arrest of a murderer who was caught within two minutes of the time he committed his brutal crime. A frantic telephone call was received at our central switchboard. The dispatcher | immediately completed a connection 1 with the microphone and broadcast | the alarm. The message was picked up by a car cruising near the scene I of the crime and the killer was arj rested as he was about to cast his gun ! into a nearby creek. S “In another instance the alarm of j a bank hold-up was flashed to the ! cruisers. A car was at the door of the ! bank and got its man within 60 sec- | onds of the receipt of the message, j “Another startling proof of what | this new development means to police | service was exemplified recently. Two | little girls were passing the home of ' a friend when they noticed the gleams | of a flashlight in the basement of the 1 house. Knowing that the owner was

absent and suspecting the house was being burgled, they ran to a telephone and notified headquarters of their suspicions. Within 90 seconds a cruiser squad, directed by radio, had arrested the burglar while he was still at work in the house.

“Not long ago headquarters was notified that a coal company’s office, located in the outskirts of the city, was being held up. Almost simultaneously with the receipt of the call, the alarm was broadcast. Less than two minutes later the thug had been located, cornered and while ‘shooting it out,’ was killed, thanks to the marksmanship of the crew of the radio-equipped cruiser. “Before long every officer will be equipped with a small radio receiver. Every man and every car patrolling our streets night or day will be directed by radio orders. The value of police service to our citizens will be increased a hundredfold.

“The psychological effect of quick capture acts as a powerful deterrent to crime,” Commissioner Rutledge added. “The actual effect is being recorded daily on the log of our police radio in Detroit. We are catching and convicting more robbers and other vicious criminals than ever before. Prosecutions have increased 54 per cent.

“All of which is discouraging to the criminally inclined parasite, who will soon find it best to adopt honest employment as his means of livelihood.”