INSIDE SCOTLAND YARD-BBC Documentary

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 459, 9 April 1948, Page 7

INSIDE SCOTLAND YARD-BBC Documentary

HEN thousands of men \X/ and women in Britain were returning to civilian life at the end of the war, all of them with gratuities and hence prospective victims for sharks and swindlers, the BBC broadcast a series of programmes called It’s Your Money They’re After which exposed all the old swindles-and some new ones-by which they rhight be relieved of their money. Sir Harold Scott, Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, was most enthusiastic about the series, and suggested that as listeners now knew how crooks worked, they ought to know how the police worked too, and should be shown just what the criminal was up against. He gave orders to his senior offigials to co-operate in every way with the BBC in presenting an authentic picture of the police machine in operation, and the resulting series of programmes .was called Scotland Yard. at Work.

There are five programmes in the series, and the scripts were written by two former crime-reporters, Robert Barr and Percy Hoskins. All the facts are based on official police records, with leading authorities in every branch of crime and detection: taking part. The first programme, "Murder," gives a detailed account of how the police tracked down the murderer in a war-time case that is now regarded as a world classic in detection. Detective Superintendent Rawlings, who was in charge of the case, and Dr. Keith Simpson, Home Office Pathologist, describe their part in the investigation in their own words. Hunting Down the Criminal The crook who wants to hide his identity. stands a very poor chance against Scotland Yard to-day, because of the remarkable way in which they record every item of information gathered by the police. If he leaves a fingerprint it is catalogued along with ten million others, if he tries to disguise his identity by forged documents, the

police scientific laboratories will expose the forgery. And the whole system is so organised that each department can pool its share of the evidence that may lead to an arrest. In the second programme, "The Alias," which describes how the Yard tracked down a man wanted for robbery with violence, Superintendent Cherrill, the world’s greatest fingerprint authority, and Inspector Percy Law, expert on the infra-red and ultra-violet ray lamps | used for detecting for- — geries, are among those — taking part. In "The Master Criminal’’ other brilliant scientists who work with the London ©

Police come to the microphone to explain how the modern criminal is up against a body of experts who will never admit defeat, and they describe how they have solved a number of actual cases. The Flying Squad One of the most thrilling programmes in the series is called "Mobile Crime." In it Chief Inspector Fabian, Officer in Command of the. Flying Squad, explains how the squad is fighting London’s smash-and-grab gangs, and one of the drivers tells in his own words the story of a break-neck chase through London streets that ended in the capture of a car-load of crooks who had just robbed a jeweller’s shop. The Flying Squad came into being in 1916 when a small group of police offi-

cers were taken in ex-army tenders to places where pickpockets were expected to operate. So great was the success of this sudden appearance that the squad was built up to its present organisation. Neither the crooks nor the public can tell a Flying Squad vehicle until it suddenly goes into action. It may be a limousine, an ordinary-looking private car, even a tradesman’s van, but all squad vehicles have two things in common-a powerful engine that gives them a surprising turn of speed, and a first-class driver who knows all the tricks of the crook’s game as well as his own. Scotland Yard at Work starts from 2YH at 4.30 p.m. on Sunday, April 18, and will.be heard later from the other National stations.