POLICE UNIVERSITY FOR LONDON’S SLEUTHS.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 379, 10 March 1937, Page 6

POLICE UNIVERSITY FOR LONDON’S SLEUTHS.

i TRAINING SYSTEM.

j English Scheme May Be Adopted for Victoria. ■ Suggestions for the training of j crime detection experts in Victoria* j are included in the report winch Chief Inspector A. Duncan, formerly of Scotland Yard, has submitted to the Government. In the following article a special coirespondent of the Melbourne “Herald” describes the methods followed in the education of London’s “sleuths.” The other day I visited a police court which was filled with policemen in uniform. Even the prisoner wore the dark blue jacket, with corded shoulder straps, of an inspector. It w'as not, however, a world- i shaking case, and the report did not • ! appear in the Press. It was merely i an incident in the training of young ! : police officers at the Metropolitan j Police College. Hendon. For here in the extensive quarters ■ of what was once a country club a | system has come into being for ; the training of London’s future ' sleuths. It is a complete system : where they are taught the theory and | practice of crime detection in much

the same way as they might undertake a university course. Let us take a. peep into the model police coitrt first. Here are all the drab benches; dock, magistrate’s table, Press box and all that goes to make up the musty atmosphere of the average police court. The court is filled with police cadets in the dark blue uniform of station inspectors'. Only the magistrate civilian clothes.

A young cadet assuming the role of policeman is droning out his evidence, and now and again he is pulled up in a. friendly way by a magistrate who points out that he is a hit long-winded. At the Prets another police cadet is writing furiously, but he is not taking a shorthand note of the case. He is merely noting down points of particular phrases which he may or may not use in a charge, so that when his turn conies he will not make the same mistakes. Evidence Concluded. The uniformed “prisoner” wears no hunted look; in fact he looks slightly critically at the man who ,is making the charge. He is- a dark, sleek young man with perfectly-groomed hair and he replies to the magistrate’s questions in such faultless accents that it is l scarcely credible he could be guilty of any c.riipe, save that of a mild “binge” on boat-race night. The evidence is finished and there is a general post. The “prisoner” becomes the newspaper reporter and the officer making the charge assumes the role of “prisoner.” The “newspaper reporter” leaves his desk and begins to read the charge of another case. And so it goes on, each ca-se varying in detail, until each of the 15 or 20' cadets in the room has assumed the roles of the principal characters in the drama. And so they gradually assimilate all the intricacies of police court procedure, even to the handling of the prisoner, who is brought up to charged. Mea.nw'hile in another room—4 he exact replica of a police station—another drama is being enacted. Imaginary telephone calls bringing news of murders, thefts, or street fights are received. Station sergeants spring to life, and plan the appropriate action.

Then comes the most interesting of all exhibits. It is l a glh.ss case hung on the Wall, displaying a variety of different objects, all of which have a definite bearing on a certain crime. These are used to test the deductive powers of the cadets and to train them in the powers of observing, what may seem, at first, small details, unworthy of notice. There are some 16 or 20 of these. It may be a discarded cigarette packet, on which there is a tiny spot of blood. Or it may be a small portion of earth, to which is clinging a particle of china. It may even be just a broken bootlace, or a small fragment of cloth. Some half dozen of these objects—'together with a slig-ht amplification of their history—are offered to a student, and he is asked to reconstruct a case against a prisoner, Who, it is assumed, is held to he charged. Two Years’ Intensive Training. He is told, for instance, that the discarded cigarette packet wnas found near the scene of a murder. The piece of earth wqs found in the turnup of the prisoner’s trousers 1 . The broken bootlace and the figment of cloth were found near a fence about a hundred yards from the house where the murder was committed. And he has to piece all these clues together in logical sequence before

he passes his test. And the man who judges whether he has passed his test is often a man vliose name, has been made, famous, In the field ot criminal investigation. After two years of this intensive training in the theory of crime investigation and police procedure, which naturally comprises a wide variety of subjects from the methods of working beats and patrols to the general principles of law, they sally forth to the rough stuff of real life.

The first-timer will have to spend four months carrying out the, ordinary duties of a constable; another four months performing detective and court duties; then he will he attached to the criminal record office and finger print branch. His last four months 1 v'ill be occupied a-s section sergeant and station officer, after which he will emerge as a fully blown junior station inspector with an annual stipend o't £2OO. W.hat commodity in everyday d--maifd has contributed most largely to the comfort and enjoyment of humanity? , If that question could be put to the vote there can be little doubt the anslvten, summed up in one wor-1. would be—Tobacco. “There’s ntf herb like It under the canopy of heaven.” wrote Kingsley, and his verdict has been endorsed, the world over, by millions. Lovers of the weed are fortunately situated in N.Z. for not only is this a tobacco producing country hut the tobacco it grows and manufactures on such an extensive scale is second to none. The most competent judges pronounce the now famous brands Cut Plug No. TO (Bullf'head), Cavendish Navy Cut No. 3 fBulldog), Riverhead Gold add Desert Gold to be not only equal to anything other countries can show, hut in some respects actually better. With their unique flavour and fascinating aroma they appeal irresistibly to the smoker vJith the added merit that owing to their purity and comparative freedom from, nicotine (eliminated by toasting) -they are practically hartnleW.