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diff --git a/31629.txt b/31629.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c1df48 --- /dev/null +++ b/31629.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4214 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Scotland Yard, by George Dilnot + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Scotland Yard + The methods and organisation of the Metropolitan Police + +Author: George Dilnot + +Release Date: March 13, 2010 [EBook #31629] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCOTLAND YARD *** + + + + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +SCOTLAND YARD. + + +_Copyright in the United States of America, 1915._ + + + + +SCOTLAND YARD + +THE METHODS AND ORGANISATION OF THE METROPOLITAN POLICE. + +BY + +GEORGE DILNOT. + +[Illustration: Logo] + +LONDON: +PERCIVAL MARSHALL & CO., +66, FARRINGDON STREET, E.C. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE +CHAPTER I. + +THE SILENT MACHINE 9 + +CHAPTER II. + +MATTERS OF ORGANISATION 16 + +CHAPTER III. + +THE REAL DETECTIVE 22 + +CHAPTER IV. + +ON THE TRAIL 32 + +CHAPTER V. + +MAKING A DETECTIVE 41 + +CHAPTER VI. + +MORE ABOUT INVESTIGATION 48 + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE "CROOKS'" CLEARING-HOUSE 54 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FINGER-PRINTS 65 + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE SCHOOL OF POLICE 76 + +CHAPTER X. + +IN A POLICE STATION 87 + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE RIDDLE DEPARTMENT 98 + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE SAILOR POLICE 109 + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE BLACK MUSEUM 118 + +CHAPTER XIV. + +PUBLIC CARRIAGES 123 + +CHAPTER XV. + +LOST, STOLEN, OR STRAYED 132 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +TO ROBERT. + +MY DEAR ROBERT, + +It is more than probable that since this book was written you have +changed your uniform and your beat. You are in the North Sea, in +Flanders, in Gallipoli. Nowhere can admiral or general wish a better +man. + +I have known you long. I have for many years been thrown among you in +all circumstances, and at all times. I have known you trudging your +beat, have known you more especially as a detective, have known you in +high administrative and executive positions. I have seen you arrest +armed murderers, have seen you tactfully reproving a drunkard, have seen +you solving tangled problems of crime, have seen you charging a mob, +have seen you playing with a lost baby. I do not think there is any +phase of your work which I have not seen. And I want the public to know +you. + +You, whether you be Commissioner or constable, occupy a position of +delicate and peculiar responsibility. You are poised between the trust +and suspicion of those you serve, and you are never quite sure whether +you will be blessed or blamed. I, who realise something of your +temptations and your qualities, know how seldom you fail in an +emergency, how rarely you abuse your powers. + +You will forgive me when I say you are not perfect. You have your little +failings, and at times the defect of one man recoils on 20,000. There +are matters I should like to see changed. But, on the whole, you are +admittedly still the best policeman in the world. + +The war has claimed you and others of your profession. Astute commanding +officers have recognised you as "men who are handled and made," and many +a constable of a year ago now wears an officer's stars. There are those +of you who have gained other distinctions. + +There is no branch of the service here dealt with that has not sent of +its best to the fighting line. None will recognise more willingly than +you in the trenches that the luck has been yours. We know (you and I) +that others have been, by no will of their own, left behind. It is to +these, in no small degree, that the safety and equanimity of London have +been due. And it is as well that here tribute should be paid to those +who have endured without retort the sneers of the malicious and +ill-informed as well as the multiplicity of extra duties the war has +entailed upon them. + +One advantage, at least, the war has conferred on you. It has exploded +the ignorance of your profession to those thousands of citizens who have +elected to share something of your responsibilities. They at least know +something of your work; they at least know that the special constable +can never replace, though he may assist, the experienced police-officer. +You always understood the Londoner; now the Londoner is coming to +understand you. + +I have attempted no more than a sketch of the great machine of which you +form part. But if it enlightens the public in some degree as to the way +they are served by you it will have achieved its purpose. + +Yours sincerely, + +GEORGE DILNOT. + +London, +October, 1915. + + + + +SCOTLAND YARD. + +By GEORGE DILNOT. + + "By all means let us abuse the police, but let us see what the poor + wretches have to do."--KIPLING. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE SILENT MACHINE. + + +We who live in London are rather apt to take our police for granted. +Occasionally, in a mood of complacency, we boast of the finest police +force in the world; at other times, we hint darkly at corruption and +brutality among a gang of men too clever, too unscrupulous to be found +out. We associate Scotland Yard with detectives--miraculous creations of +imaginative writers--forgetting that the Criminal Investigation +Department is but one branch in a wondrously complex organisation. Of +that organisation itself, we know little. And in spite of--or perhaps +because of--the mass of writing that has made its name familiar all over +the world, there exists but the haziest notion as to how it performs its +functions. + +Perhaps one of the reasons for this ignorance is that Scotland Yard +never defends itself, never explains, never extenuates. Praise or blame +it accepts in equal silence. It goes on its way, ignoring everything +that does not concern it, acting swiftly, impartially, caring nothing +save for duty to be done. + +There is romance in Scotland Yard--a romance that has never been +written, that may never be written. It concerns the building up, in the +face of incredible obstacles, of a vast, ingenious machine which has +become one of the greatest instruments of civilisation the world has +ever seen. + +Imagine an army of 20,000 men encamped over seven hundred square miles, +with its outposts in every quarter of the globe--an army engaged in +never-ceasing warfare with the guerillas of crime and disorder. Imagine +something of the work it does. + +In a city of seven million souls, crammed with incalculable wealth, +there are less than a thousand habitual thieves--the exact number is +706--and 161 receivers of stolen goods. In spite of all its temptations, +there are but seventeen thousand serious crimes in a year, while the +number of more trivial offences is only one hundred and seventy +thousand. Few of the perpetrators escape justice. Compare this record +with that of any city in the world. Ask Paris, ask New York, ask +Petrograd, and you will begin to realise how well protected London is. + +In a large soft-carpeted room, its big double windows open to catch the +breezes that blow from the river, sits the man upon whom the ultimate +responsibility for all this devolves, a slim-built, erect man of sixty +odd, with moustache once auburn but now grey, grey hair and shrewd hazel +eyes--Sir Edward Henry. + +Imperturbable, quiet-voiced, quiet-mannered, he sits planning the peace +of London. He is playing a perpetual game of chess on the great board of +the metropolis with twenty thousand men as his pieces against a +cosmopolitan fraternity of evil-doers who never rest. He is the one man +in the service who must never make a mistake. + +The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police sleeps on no bed of roses. +He must be as supple as willow, as rigid as steel, must possess the tact +of a diplomatist, with the impartiality of a judge. + +Since the days when Sir Richard Mayne built up the police organisation +in its infancy, there has been no Commissioner who so nearly fulfils the +ideal of a great police administrator as Sir Edward Henry. Unlike most +of his predecessors, practically his whole life has been spent in the +study of police science. + +It is something more than forty years ago since he entered the Indian +Civil Service as assistant magistrate collector. He became ultimately +Inspector-General of the Bengal Police, and then commissioner of a +division. + +It was there that he first established the finger-print system of +identification, as a police device for the registration of habitual +criminals which he was to introduce later at Scotland Yard, and which +has tightened the meshes round many a criminal who would otherwise have +escaped justice. + +The man in the street knows little of the silent man who is undoubtedly +the greatest police organiser in the world. Even on this very matter of +finger-prints there is a general confusion with Bertillonage--a totally +different thing. The Henry system has practically ousted Bertillonage in +every civilised country. If Sir Edward had done nothing but that he +would have ranked as one of the greatest reformers in criminal +detection. But he has done more--much more. + +Fourteen years ago he resigned his Indian post to become +Assistant-Commissioner in charge of the Criminal Investigation +Department. Even then the intention was to "try" him for Commissioner. +He spent a period in South Africa during the war reorganising the civil +police of Johannesburg and Pretoria. In 1903, when Sir Edward Bradford +retired, he was appointed Commissioner. + +He found that the vast complex machinery of which he assumed control was +running a little less freely than it should. The police force was like +an old established business--still sound, but inclined to work in a +groove. It needed a chief with courage, individuality, ideas, +initiative, and the organising powers of a Kitchener. These qualities +were almost at once revealed in Sir Edward Henry. + +In the force it was soon felt that a new power had arisen. The +Commissioner was not only a name but an actuality. Nothing was so +trivial as to escape his attention; nothing too wide for him to grasp. +He knew his men--it is said that he knows every man in the force, an +exaggeration with a great deal of truth in it--and they soon knew him. + +Quick to observe, quick to commend or punish, whether it be high +official or ordinary constable, he has come to be regarded with +unswerving devotion by those under him. The police force as he took it +over and as it is now may seem the same thing to the ordinary observer. +To those who knew something of its working it is a vastly different +thing. + +I have passed many years among police officers of all grades and all +departments. Many of these have been veterans of from twenty to thirty +years' service. They have told me of things done for the well-being of +the force, the convenience of the public, and the confusion of the +criminal. + +Telephone and telegraphic communication have been perfected between +stations, head-quarters and provincial police, the system of +identification has been revised, young constables are taught their trade +with care and thoroughness, higher pay has been granted to all ranks, +men are housed in greater comfort, red tape has been ruthlessly cut +through, the relations between police and Press have been improved; +there is a wider, broader spirit in all. A clean esprit de corps, very +different to that which at times long gone by has threatened the +interests of the public, has sprung up. + +In all these things is to be seen the hand of Sir Edward Henry. Scotland +Yard is not yet perfect; there still linger relics of the old +conservative spirit in certain directions; but the new method has made +itself felt. Initiative is encouraged in all ranks. Suggestions and +criticism from without are welcomed. + +The Commissioner is a man of instant decision. Let anyone make a +suggestion, and he ponders it for a second or so. Then he reaches for a +pen. "Yes, that's a good idea. We'll have an order on that." And in a +little the suggestion has become an official fact. + +Little escapes his eye, but he is a man who makes sure. Every morning a +bundle of newspapers and periodicals is delivered at Scotland Yard to be +carefully scrutinised and to have every reference to the force marked +with blue pencil. Where there is an accusation against a particular man, +or a criticism of methods in general, special attention is directed to +it. But there is rarely any need for this. The Commissioner has probably +read it at breakfast. The point, whatever it is, is usually in a fair +way to being dealt with before lunch. + +From the moment a constable has been sworn in he is watched and selected +for the post that best suits him. A man may do well in a semi-rural +district who would be a failure in Commercial Road, E. He may be +selected for office work, regulation of traffic, for the Criminal +Investigation Department, for the Thames Division, or for routine duty +in the street. Wherever he is he is the best man who can be found for +the work, and so from top to bottom of the ladder of promotion. + +Many romances have been written of Scotland Yard, but imagination has +supplied the place of facts, for the tongues of those who have taken +part in dramatic episodes, more stirring than any in fiction, are +locked. + +Yet, in spite of all its cold, business-like atmosphere, the story of +the Metropolitan Police is in itself a vivid romance which only a +Kipling could write as it should be written. Imagine the Commissioner, +whose power is almost autocratic, weaving a net that is spread broadcast +to catch within its meshes any person who breaks the King's peace or the +King's laws. + +And, although now and again the personal factor is discernible in some +piece of work, it is mainly cold, precise, business-like organisation +which holds the net so close. Telephones, telegraphs, and motor cars +link the police stations of London closely--so closely that within less +than half an hour 20,000 men can be informed of the particulars of a +crime. + +As an instance of organisation, it may be interesting to recall that +during the Coronation procession, when close on 600 detectives were on +duty mingling with the crowds, it was possible for Mr. Frank Froest, the +then Superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department, in his +office, to get a message to or from any one of them within ten minutes. +A large proportion of the whole body could have been concentrated on one +spot within twenty minutes. + +It is organisation that makes Scotland Yard able to carry out its myriad +duties, from testing motor omnibuses to plucking a murderer from his +hiding place at the ends of the earth, from guarding the persons of +Emperors and Kings to preventing a Whitechapel bully from knocking his +wife about. The work must go on smoothly, silently, every department +harmonising, every man working in one common effort. + +The administrative and financial sides of the police are divided, the +former being under the Commissioner, the latter under the Receiver, Mr. +G. H. Tripp. The maintenance of the Metropolitan Police is naturally +expensive, the average cost of each constable annually being L102. The +gross expenditure during 1913-14 was L2,830,796; of this, L886,307 was +received from the Exchequer, L244,383 was from sums paid for the +services of constables lent to other districts, L1,512,072 from London +ratepayers, and the remainder from various sources. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MATTERS OF ORGANISATION. + + +The great deterrent against crime is not vindictive punishment; the more +certain you make detection, the less severe your punishment may be. The +brilliant sleuth-hound work of which we read so often is a less +important factor in police work than organisation. Organisation it is +which holds the peace of London. It is organisation that plucks the +murderer from his fancied security at the ends of the earth, that +prevents the drunkard from making himself a nuisance to the public, that +prevents the defective motor-bus from becoming a danger or an annoyance +to the community. + +Inside the building of red brick and grey stone that faces the river, +and a stone's throw from the Houses of Parliament, there are men who sit +planning, planning, planning. The problems of the peace of London change +from day to day, from hour to hour, almost from minute to minute. Every +emergency must be met, instantly, as it arises--often by diplomacy, +sometimes by force. A hundred men must be thrown here, a thousand there, +and trained detectives picked for special work. With swift, smooth +precision, the well-oiled machinery works, and we, who only see the +results, never guess at the disaster that might have befallen if a +sudden strain had thrown things out of gear. + +In the tangle of departments and sub-departments, bewildering to the +casual observer, there is an elastic order which welds the whole +together. Not a man but knows his work. The top-notch of efficiency is +good enough for Scotland Yard. Its men are engaged in business pure and +simple, not in making shrewd detective deductions. The lime-light which +occasionally bursts upon them distorts their ways and their duties. +Really, they have little love for the dramatic. Newspaper notoriety is +not sought, and men cannot "work the Press," as in times gone by, to +attain a fictitious reputation. + +It is through well-chosen lieutenants that Sir Edward Henry works. There +are four Assistant-Commissioners upon each of whom special work +devolves. Sir Frederick Wodehouse, for instance, is the "Administrative +Assistant-Commissioner." He deals with all matters relating to +discipline, promotion, and routine so far as the uniformed force is +concerned. + +The Criminal Investigation Department is under Mr. Basil Thompson, a +comparatively young man who came from the Prison Commission to succeed +Sir Melville Macnaghten, and who has successfully experimented with some +new ideas to make the path of the criminal more difficult. Mr. Frank +Elliott, who was formerly at the Home Office, holds sway over the Public +Carriage Office; and the Hon. F. T. Bigham, a barrister--and a son of +Lord Mersey, who gained his experience as a Chief Constable of the +Criminal Investigation Department--deals with and investigates the +innumerable complaints and enquiries that would occur even in a police +force manned by archangels. Mr. Bigham is also the Central Authority +under the terms of the international agreement for the suppression of +the white slave traffic. + +There are six Chief Constables, mostly ex-military officers. One of +these assists in the administration of the Criminal Investigation +Department, the remainder control districts of four or five adjoining +divisions. To adopt a military simile, they may be compared to +major-generals in command of brigades, with each division representing a +battalion, and the superintendents, colonels. + +Only once in the whole history of the Metropolitan Police has a man +risen from the ranks to the post of Chief Constable, though many, like +Mr. Gentle at Brighton, and Mr. Williams at Cardiff, have become the +heads of important provincial forces. The post of superintendent in +London is at least equivalent in its responsibilities to the average +chief-constableship of the provinces. There are metropolitan section +sergeants who have as many men under their control as some chief +constables of small boroughs. + +The unit of the Metropolitan Police is a division which averages about a +thousand men. Each is under a superintendent, with a chief-inspector as +second in command. Thereafter the ranks run: + + + UNIFORM BRANCH. DETECTIVE BRANCH. + + { Divisional Detective-Inspectors. + Sub-divisional Inspectors { Central Detective-Inspectors. + + Inspectors Detective-Inspectors + + Station-Sergeants First Class Detective Sergeants. + + Section-Sergeants Second Class Detective-Sergeants + + Constables (reserve) Third Class Detective-Sergeants + + Constables (according to Detective-Patrols + seniority) + + +These are distributed among close on two hundred police stations in the +metropolis, and in twenty-two divisions. Some are detailed for the +special work with which London as London has nothing to do. Thus there +are: the King's Household Police; divisions guarding the dockyards and +military stations at Woolwich, Portsmouth, Devonport, Chatham, and +Pembroke; detachments on special duty at the Admiralty and War Office +and the Houses of Parliament and Government Departments; and men +specially employed, as at the Royal Academy, the Army and Navy Stores, +and so on. In all, there are 1,932 men so engaged.[1] Their services are +charged for by the Receiver, and the cost does not fall upon the +ratepayers. + +Scotland Yard is run on the lines of a big business. To the intimate +observer it is strangely similar in many of its aspects to a great +newspaper office, with its diverse and highly specialised duties all +tending to one common end. The headquarters staff is a big one. There +are superintendents in charge of the departments, men whom no emergency +can ruffle--calm, methodical and alert, ready to act in the time one can +make a telephone call. + +There are McCarthy, of the Central Criminal Investigation Department; +Quinn, of the Special Branch which concerns itself with political +offences and the care of Royalty; Bassom, of the Public Carriage +Department; Gooding, of the Peel House Training School; West and White, +of the Executive and Statistical Departments. + +Nothing but fine, careful organisation could weld together these +multitudinous departments with their myriad duties. It is an +organisation more difficult to handle than that of any army in the +field. The public takes it all for granted until something goes wrong, +some weak link in the chain fails. Then there is trouble. + +The Metropolitan Police is the only force in England which is +independent of local control. The Commissioner--often wrongly described +as the Chief Commissioner--is appointed by the Crown on the +recommendation of the Home Secretary, and has wide, almost autocratic +powers. It is an Imperial force which has duties apart from the care of +London. It has divisions at the great dockyards; it is the adviser and +helper of multifarious smaller zones in case of difficulty. It has +charge of the river from Dartford Creek to Teddington, and its confines +extend far beyond the boundaries of the London County Council. + +In one year its printing and stationery bill alone amounts to over +L10,000; its postage, telegrams, and telephone charges to another +L13,000. Its gross cost is nearly three millions a year. That is the +insurance paid for the keeping of the peace. What do we get for it? + +We have taught the world that a body of police can be none the less +efficient although their hands are clean; that honesty is not +necessarily a synonym for stupidity; that law and order can be enforced +without brutality. There are no _agents provocateur_ in the London +police, and the grafter has little opportunity to exercise his talent. + +In one year 17,910 indictable offences were committed within the +boundaries of the Metropolitan Police district. For these 14,525 people +were proceeded against, and as some of them were probably responsible +for two or more of the offences the margin of those who escaped is very +low. There were 178,495 minor offenders, all of whom were dealt with. + +The machinery of Scotland Yard misses little. How many crimes have been +prevented by the knowledge of swift and almost inevitable punishment it +is impossible to say, but they have been many. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] This was before the War. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE REAL DETECTIVE. + + +Through a little back door, up a stone flight of stairs, into a broad +corridor one passes to the offices where are quartered the heads of the +most important branch of Scotland Yard--the Criminal Investigation +Department, with its wide-reaching organisation stretching beyond the +confines of London over the whole world. + +It is its business to keep its fingers on the pulse of crime, to watch +vigilantly the comings and goings of thousands of men and women, and to +bring to justice all those whose acts have made them a menace to +society. + +No department of Scotland Yard has been more written around; none has +been more misunderstood. It does its duty effectually, unswervingly, in +the same unemotional spirit that marks the other departments of the +service, but with perhaps even a keener eye to its own reputation. The +C.I.D. knows how high is the reputation it has won among international +police forces, and is very properly jealous of its maintenance. + +There have been critics of the C.I.D. Many have held that the system of +recruiting from the uniformed police is wrong in essence--that educated +men employed direct from civilian life would be more effective. There is +no bar against anyone being appointed direct if the authorities +chose--but it has been tried. + +Once upon a time--this was a long while ago--an ardent reformer held +the reins of the detective force. He made many valuable changes, and +some less valuable--among the latter the experiment of "gentlemen" as +detectives. There were six of them, and the full story of these +kid-glove amateurs would be interesting reading. They were, in the +euphemistic words of the reformer himself, "eminently unsatisfactory." +"There is," he added, "little doubt that the gentlemen who have failed +in one of the professions which they usually adopt are less trustworthy, +less reliable, and more difficult to control than those who enter a +calling such as the police in the ordinary course."[2] So the only +approach to Sherlock Holmes that Scotland Yard has ever seen was killed +for good and all, though there is still no legal bar to anyone being +appointed directly a detective. + +Six hundred and fifty picked officers, all of whom have worn the blue +uniform and patrolled the streets at the regulation pace, form a mobile +army scattered over the metropolis. + +Quiet and unobtrusive men for the most part, dogged, tactful, and +resourceful, they must always be ready to act at a moment's notice as +individuals or as part of a machine. For it is the machinery of Scotland +Yard that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred calls check to the +criminal's move. It is long odds on law and order every time. + +The administrative work of the department is carried out by the +Assistant-Commissioner and the Chief Constable. It is on the shoulders +of two superintendents--curiously enough, both Irishmen--at the head of +the two main branches of the department that the executive work chiefly +devolves. + +Superintendent John McCarthy--who for several years has held the reins +of the Central C.I.D., to which the main body of detectives are +attached--is a blue-eyed, soft-voiced man who governs with no less tact +and firmness than his predecessor, the famous Frank Froest. In a service +extending for more than thirty years he has accumulated an unequalled +experience of all classes of crime and criminals, and has travelled +widely in many countries on dangerous and difficult missions. Tall and +neat, he gives an impression of absolute competence. And competence is +needed in the organisation he has to handle. + +Nothing can ruffle him. He sits at a flat-topped desk in a soft-carpeted +room, working quietly, methodically. By the window stands a big steel +safe containing hundreds of pounds in gold, at hand for any emergency. +Ranged on shelves are reference books--"Who's Who," "The Law List," +"Medical Directory," "A.B.C. Guide," "Continental Bradshaw," and others. +Behind the office table are half a dozen speaking tubes and a telephone. + +It is for Mr. McCarthy to enlist the aid of the Press on occasion. It is +sometimes necessary to give wide publicity to a description or a +photograph. Then skilful diplomacy is necessary to avoid giving facts +which, instead of helping, might hamper an investigation. Only of late +years has this co-operation been sought--and credit is due to Mr. Froest +for the manner in which he helped to initiate and apply the system. +Swift publicity has often helped to run down a criminal, notably in the +case of the murderer Crippen. + +Immediately associated with Mr. McCarthy at headquarters are four Chief +Detective-Inspectors--Ward, Fowler, Hawkins, and Gough--all men of long +experience and proved qualities. Most of their names are familiar to the +public in connection with the unravelling of mysteries during the last +decade. One Chief Detective-Inspector--Mr. Wensley--has his headquarters +in the East End. + +One or more of these is always available in an emergency. Is there an +epidemic of burglary at some district in London? A chief-inspector is +sent to organise a search for the culprits, taking with him a detachment +from Scotland Yard to reinforce the divisional detectives. Problems of +crime that affect London as a whole are dealt with by them. + +Some have specialist knowledge of particular classes of crime or +particular districts, though each must be competent to undertake any +investigation, no matter what it may be. Or a provincial police force +may ask for expert aid in, for instance, a baffling murder mystery. One +may be sent by the authority of the Home Secretary to assist in its +solution. + +To each of the twenty-two divisions into which the Metropolitan Police +is split up are assigned between twelve to thirty detectives, under a +divisional inspector. In ten of the larger divisions there is a junior +inspector to assist in the control of the staff. Except in a few of the +outlying districts there are one, two, three or more detectives to every +police station. They deal with local crime, make it their business to +know local thieves, and reinforce other divisions or are reinforced as +occasion demands. They have special duties allotted to them, and have to +keep a record in their diaries of the manner in which their time is +spent. + +Yet individuality and initiative are not sacrificed by too rigid a +discipline. If a man learnt, for instance, while watching for +pickpockets in the Strand that a robbery was being planned at +Kennington, it would be his duty to make at once for the scene. He would +stay for nothing, gathering assistance, if possible, as he went, but, if +not, going alone. + +Usually, it is found that the divisional men can deal with any matter +needing attention in their districts, but occasionally London is +startled by some great mystery. It is then that the C.I.D. moves +swiftly, with every nerve strained to achieve its ends. + +There is no actual "murder commission," as there is in some foreign +countries, but every person and device likely to be of assistance is +quickly concentrated on the spot. Not a second of time is lost from the +moment the crime is discovered. First on the spot are the divisional +detective-inspector and his staff. Telephones and the chattering tape +machines tell the details in ten score of police stations. + +Mr. Basil Thompson, the Assistant-Commissioner, and Mr. McCarthy will +probably motor in haste to the spot. Specialists are summoned from all +quarters. Not a thing is moved until a minute inspection has been made, +plans drawn, photographs taken, notes made, and finger-prints sought +for. It may be necessary to get certain points settled by experts, by +Dr. Wilcox, the Home Office analyst, Dr. Spilsbury, the pathologist, by +a gunsmith, an expert in handwriting, or any one of a dozen others. The +very best professional assistance is always sought. + +The danger of amateur experts was exemplified some years ago, when a +woman who committed suicide tried to destroy every mark of identity on +her clothes. She missed one detail--a laundry mark worked in red thread +on her dressing jacket. The mark was read as E.U.X.A.O.Z., and these +letters were advertised far and wide. Then the President of the Laundry +Association examined the garment, and conclusively showed that the +marks really represented E.48992. It was, he declared, not a laundry +mark at all, but a dyers and cleaners' mark. And this was what it proved +to be. + +While the experts are busy the divisional inspector and his men are no +less so. They are making a kind of gigantic snowball enquiry, working +backwards from the persons immediately available. A. has little to say +himself, but there are B. and C. who, he knows, were connected with the +murdered person. And B. and C. having been questioned speak of D. E. F. +and G.; and it may be that a score or more persons have been interviewed +ere one is found who can supply some vital fact. I have known a murder +investigation held up a couple of hours while search was being made for +someone to supply the address of some other person who _might_ know +something. + +All very tedious this, and very different from the methods of the +detectives we read about. But then the detectives of fiction somehow +avoid the chance of the flaws in their deductions being sought out by +astute cross-examining counsel. + +If a description of the suspected murderer is available a telegraphist +working at Scotland Yard will get it, with the letters "A.S." (all +stations) attached. As he taps his instrument the message is +automatically ticked out simultaneously at every station in the +metropolis. + +The great railway termini are watched, and men are thrown to the +outlying stations as a second safeguard. Should the man slip through +this net he will find England locked from port to port. The C.I.D. have +their own men at many ports, and at others the co-operation of the +provincial police is enlisted. He is lucky indeed if he gets away after +the hue and cry has been raised. + +There are no chances taken. Everything is put on record, whether it +appears relevant or irrelevant to the enquiry. In the Registry--a kind +of clerical bureau of the Criminal Investigation Department--every +statement, every report is neatly typed, filed in a book with all +relating to the case, and indexed. It remains available just so long as +the crime is unsolved--ten days or ten years. The progress of the case +is always shown to within an hour. + +No effort is spared to get on the track of the murderer while the scent +is still warm. Scores of men work on different aspects of the case. The +Finger-print Department may be trying to identify a thumb-print from +among their records; in another part of the building the photographers +have made a lantern slide of certain charred pieces of paper, and are +throwing a magnified reproduction on a screen for closer scrutiny; a +score of men are seeking for a cabman who might have driven the murderer +away. + +It may be that these steps will go on for days and weeks with dogged +persistence. This stage of investigation has been aptly likened to a +jig-saw puzzle which may fall from chaos into a composite whole at any +moment. Once the hounds have glimpsed their quarry it is almost hopeless +for him to attempt to escape. His description, his photograph, specimens +of his writing are spread broadcast for the aid of the public in +identifying him wherever he may hide. Men watch the big railway +stations, out-going ships are kept under surveillance, for the C.I.D. +has two or three staff men resident in many parts. They are also +maintained at ports like Boulogne and Calais. + +The co-operation of the provincial and foreign police is obtained, and +the wide publicity of newspapers. The whole-heartedness with which the +public throws itself into a hunt of this kind has disadvantages as well +as advantages. A score of times a day people will report someone "very +like" the wanted man as seen almost simultaneously in a score of +different places. All these reports have to be immediately investigated. + +And with the search for the culprit the ceaseless search for evidence +goes on. It is no use to catch a murderer if you cannot adduce proof +against him. The enthusiasm of the investigators is not called forth by +a blood-hunt. It is all a part of the mechanism. The C.I.D. and its +members are merely putting through a piece of business quite +impersonally. "A murder has been committed," they say in effect. "We +have caught the person we believe responsible, and this is the evidence. +It does not matter to us what happens now. The jury are responsible." + +It once fell to the lot of the writer to see an arrest for a murder with +which the world rang. The merest novice in stage management could have +obtained a better dramatic effect; the arrest of a drunken man by an +ordinary constable would have had more thrill. It was in a street +thronged with people passing homewards from the city. A single detective +waited on each pavement. Presently one of them lifted his hat and the +other crossed over. They fell into step each side of a very ordinary +young man. "Your name is so-and-so," said one. "We are police-officers, +and we should like an explanation of one or two things. It may be +necessary to detain you." A cab stopped, the three got into it, and as +it drove away there were not two people among the thousands in the +street who knew that anything out of the ordinary had happened. + +That is typical of the way arrests for great crimes are effected if +possible. Yet, sometimes circumstances force melodrama on the +detectives. Another arrest which was watched by the writer took place at +dead of night in a dirty lodging-house in an East End street. A +house-to-house search had been instituted by forty or fifty armed +detectives. They expected desperate resistance when they found their +quarry. And at last they came upon the man they sought sleeping +peacefully on a truckle bed. A giant detective lifted him bodily. A +great coat was bundled over his night shirt, and he was sent off as he +was, under escort, into the night. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] Sir Howard Vincent, first and only "Director of Criminal +Investigations," said, in 1883: "It has been urged more than once that +better and more reliable detectives might be found among the retired +officers of the army and younger sons of gentlemen than in the ranks of +the police. Willing, as I hope I shall always be, to give every +suggestion a fair trial, six such recruits have been enrolled in the +Criminal Investigation Department with a result, I am sorry to say, +eminently unsatisfactory. There is, I fear, little doubt that the +gentlemen who have failed in one of the professions which they usually +adopt are less trustworthy, less reliable, and more difficult to control +than those who enter a calling such as the police in the ordinary +course." + +Sir Charles Warren, in the course of a magazine article which had +tremendous effect on his reign as Commissioner, said, referring to the +detective service: "Some few candidates have been admitted direct to a +great number examined and rejected. Of those admitted, few, if any, have +been found qualified to remain in the detective service. It seems, +therefore, that although the Criminal Investigation Branch is open to +receive any qualified person direct, as a general rule no persons, for +some years past, have presented themselves sufficiently qualified to +remain. And there are indications of the advantages of a previous police +training in the uniform branch in the fact that the most successful +private detectives at present in the country are those who have formerly +been in, and originally trained in, the uniform branch...." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +ON THE TRAIL. + + +Primarily, the great function of the police is to prevent crime; +secondly, when it has happened, to bring the offender to justice. How do +they work? Not by relying on spasmodic flashes of inspiration, like the +detective of fiction, but by hard, painstaking work, and, of course, +organisation. + +Crime is divided into two classes--the habitual and the casual. Every +habitual criminal is known. Numbers vary, but the latest available +figures show that there are 957 habitual criminals in London, of whom +706 are thieves and 161 receivers. Now, each of these thieves has a +distinctive method. A crime occurs. It is reported to the local police +station, and a detective is sent to the scene. Perhaps he is able to say +off-hand: "This job was done by so-and-so." Then, having fixed his man, +he sets to work to accumulate evidence. Scotland Yard is reported to, +and thence word is sent to every police station to keep a look-out for +Brown, or Jones, or Smith--that is, if he has left his usual haunts. +Every detective--strange as it may seem--makes it a point to keep on +good terms with thieves. It is his business. Sooner or later the man +"wanted" is discovered, unless he is exceptionally astute. + +There are, of course, a hundred ways of finding the author of the +crime. The good detective chooses the simplest. Subtle analysis is all +very well, but it is apt to lead to blind alleys. Imagine a case such as +occurs every day: + +A burglary has been committed and reported to the police. The first +steps are automatic. The divisional detective-inspector in control of +the district sets his staff to work. Men get descriptions of the stolen +property, and within an hour the private telegraph and telephone wires +have carried them to every police station in London. The great printing +machine of Scotland Yard reels off "Informations" four times a day, and +in the next edition the story of the crime is told, and each of the 650 +detectives in London, as well as the 20,000 uniformed police, have it +impressed upon their minds. + +Swift, unobtrusive little green motor cars carry "Pawnbrokers' Lists" to +every police station to be distributed by hand. The _Police Gazette_ +goes out twice a week to the whole police forces of the British Empire. + +Every honest market in which the booty can be disposed of is closed. If +the thief has been unwary enough to leave a finger-print it is +photographed, and should he be an old hand the records at Scotland Yard +show his identity in less than half an hour. + +All this is a matter of routine. It is "up to" the detectives still to +find their man. Should there be nothing tangible to act upon the +detectives--who know intimately the criminals in their district, and +many out of it--will try a method of elimination. "This," they will say +in effect, "is probably the work of one of half a dozen men. Let us see +who could have done it, and then we shall have something to go on. A. +and B. are in prison; C. we know to be in Newcastle, and D. was at +Southampton. Either E. or F. is the man." + +The personal factor enters into the work here. A detective is expected +to be on friendly terms with professional criminals, although he must +not be too friendly. The principle can be illustrated by an anecdote of +Mr. Froest, the famous detective. + +Once or twice he had arrested a notorious American crook who was +carrying on operations in this country, and whom I will call Smith. In +one of his occasional spells of liberty, Smith, who was a reputed +murderer in his own country, met Froest. "Say, chief," he drawled after +a little conversation, "I'd just hate to hurt a man like you. I always +carry a gun, and there are times when I'm a bit too handy with it. If +ever you've got to take me _never do it after six in the evening_. I'm a +bit lively then." + +It is the business of a detective to know thieves. Without an +acquaintance with their habits of thought and their social customs, he +may be lost. The "informant" plays a great part in practical detective +work, and the informant, it follows, is often a thief himself. Of the +manner in which he is used, I shall have more to say later. + +So it is among the friends (and enemies) of E. and F., that the +detectives set to work. It is a task that calls for tact. E., we will +suppose, is at home, and all his movements about the time of the crime +are checked and counter-checked. F. has vanished from his usual haunts. +This is a circumstance suspicious in itself, but rendered more so by +the fact that his wife is uncommonly flush of money. + +Often it is harder to connect together legal evidence of guilt than to +catch a criminal. The most positive moral certainty is not sufficient to +convict a man, and English detectives may not avail themselves of +methods in use abroad to bring home a crime to the right person. + +Perhaps a detective pays a visit to F.'s wife. With the remembrance of +many kindly acts performed by the police during her husband's +involuntary absences, she is torn between a stubborn loyalty to him and +her wish to be civil to her visitor. He is sympathetic--cynics may not +believe that the sympathy is often genuine--but he has his duty to do. +He does not expect her consciously to betray her husband, but his eyes +are busy while he puts artless questions. An incautious word, the +evasion of a question may give him the hint he seeks, or, on the other +hand, she may be too alert and his mission may be fruitless. + +Meanwhile a description and photograph of F. have been circulated by +what may be called the publicity department of Scotland Yard. It may be +even given to the newspapers, for your modern detective realises the +advantage of deft use of the Press. + +Remember, F. is a known criminal, and even in so vast a place as London +no man who is known can hide himself indefinitely. A striking personal +instance may be cited. The writer, in the course of an aimless walk +through obscure streets, accompanied by a well-known detective, was +greeted by no fewer than eight officers. I believe there is no instance +on record of a definite person being "wanted" where the police have +failed to find him. He may have escaped arrest for lack of evidence, +but he has been found. + +The wide-flung net will, sooner or later, enmesh F. He may be seen and +recognised or, what is more likely, he will be betrayed by one of his +associates. It does not follow that he will at once be arrested and +charged. He may be merely "detained," which means that the police have +him in custody for not more than twenty-four hours, at the end of which +time he must either be brought before a magistrate or set at liberty. He +must not be questioned, but he is given to understand why he is held, +and may, if he likes, volunteer a statement. + +If any of the stolen property is found on him the matter at once becomes +straightforward, and if he is believed to have hidden or disposed of it +to any particular person search warrants are procured to bring it to +light. + +Another instance of the methods employed by the C.I.D. to establish +identity may be recalled. Two Americans in Frankfort tried to rob a man +of L30,000. One was arrested, and the other got away. The C.I.D. was +asked if it could make any suggestions to the Frankfort police. + +Very courteously, Scotland Yard said in effect: "Yes. If the man left in +a hurry, he probably left something behind. Go to his hotel and see." + +Frankfort did so, found some luggage in the cloakroom, and among them +shirts with the name of a London maker. A Scotland Yard detective went +to the address, and found the name of a certain American "crook" as +having his shirts made to measure there. + +When the man, all unconscious that his connection with the robbery was +known, stepped out of the train at Charing Cross Station a few hours +later he was arrested. + +Individual initiative is encouraged in every officer. Luck, too, often +aids justice. Some years ago it was learnt that an absconding bank +cashier would probably try to leave England by a certain liner. + +A detective, whom we will call Smith, went armed with a description of +the man to effect an arrest. When he got on board he scrutinised the +passengers closely. Only one man resembled the description. Smith drew +him aside. + +"I have reason to believe your name is X.," he said. "I am a police +officer, and I hold a warrant for your arrest." + +Highly indignant, the man denied that he was the person described. His +indignation was obviously not assumed, and there were minor +discrepancies between his appearance and the description. + +Smith shrugged his shoulders. + +"Very well. If you are not X., and can prove it, you have nothing to +fear. In that case I presume you will have no objection to my looking +through your luggage." + +X. paled, stuttered, fumed, and protested that he would never consent to +such an outrage. + +No conduct could have been more calculated to make the officer +determined. He searched the luggage. In a small handbag he discovered, +hidden away, a mass of notes and gold. Triumphantly, he conducted his +prisoner ashore and had him locked up in the nearest police station. + +Then he telephoned to his superior officer, "I've got X." + +"No, you haven't," came the startling reply. "We've got him here. He was +arrested at King's Cross half an hour ago." + +Utterly bewildered, Smith told of his capture and the compromising gold +and notes. + +There was five minutes' silence. + +Then the voice at the other end of the telephone said quietly: "Oh, +that's all right. The man you've got is Y., a rate collector, who made a +run from Glasgow a day or two ago." + +That was the luck of the service. + +Two of the cases in which Mr. Froest was concerned may be recalled, as +illustrating how appearances may sometimes lead to wrong conclusions. + +In one, an unknown man was found head down in a water-butt outside a +country bungalow. There was an ugly bruise on his forehead, and the +provincial police who were investigating the case made up their minds +that there had been foul play. + +They asked for help from Scotland Yard, and Mr. Froest was sent down. He +looked over the scene, and his eyes twinkled. + +"This is not a case of murder," he said. "That man was a tramp. He hurt +his head in climbing through the fence--he was probably going to break +into the house--and went to bathe it in the water-butt. As he put his +head down he slipped and fell in." + +One of the listeners heard this explanation with a sceptical grin. + +"That couldn't be so," he protested, and, going near the water-butt, +lowered his head to demonstrate the impossibility of such an accident. + +The next instant there was a smothered scream and a mighty splash. A +pair of feet waved wildly in the air. As the sceptic was pulled out of +the barrel he extended his hand to Mr. Froest with a sad smile. + +"I believe you are right," he said. + +In the second instance the crews of two Cardiff tramps had joined in an +effort to "paint the town red" at Bilbao, the Spanish port. + +They returned to the quayside with their pockets stuffed full of +biscuits, which they ate as they rolled along. At the quay they were +able to clamber down into the boats, except one fireman, who was almost +completely "under the weather." So a mate of the other boat fastened a +rope round his chest and lowered him to his companions. + +Then the mate returned to his own ship. In the morning he was arrested +for murder. The fireman had been dead when taken aboard, and his +appearance showed that he died of strangulation. It was suggested that +the mate had, instead of putting the rope under his arms, put it round +his neck, and drawn him up and down, in and out of the water. + +A conviction followed the trial, but, luckily, friends of the convicted +man asked Scotland Yard to make an independent investigation. Mr. Froest +went to Cardiff, where the crews of the two vessels concerned had then +arrived. The more he went into the case the deeper became his conviction +that a miscarriage of justice had occurred. He went back to Scotland +Yard. + +"I don't believe the fireman was murdered," he said. "He was eating a +biscuit, and a piece probably stuck in his throat and choked him. As to +his being wet through, it was raining hard at the time." + +The Spanish authorities were informed of this theory, and the body of +the "murdered" man was exhumed. Still in the throat was the biscuit +which had choked him. + +There was, too, the case of an old woman murdered at Slough. Chief +Detective-Inspector Bower, now head of the Port of London Authority +police, ultimately arrested a man against whom there was nothing but +suspicion, as apart from legal proof. And on the suspect was found a +slip of crumpled paper in which coins had apparently been wrapped. The +marks of the milling were plainly discernible. Mr. Bower wrapped +twenty-one sovereigns--the amount of the money stolen from the +victim--in another piece of paper. The marks corresponded, and it was +mainly on that evidence that the prisoner was convicted. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MAKING A DETECTIVE. + + +The detective net drawn round London is close and complete. Within the +last two or three years the headquarters staff at Scotland Yard has +completely changed, although there is no man with less than twenty +years' service among the five chief detective-inspectors who act as Mr. +McCarthy's chief-lieutenants. + +These are the men who meet in special council when some great crime +stirs London, and whose wits are bent to aid the active efforts of those +deputed for the actual investigation. With them at Scotland Yard are +some seventy or eighty subordinate detectives. Crime that affects London +as a whole is usually dealt with direct from headquarters. + +Every division of police in London has its detective detachment of from +twelve to thirty men under divisional inspectors. Except in a very few +of the outlying rural districts of London, there is no police station +without one or more detectives. They are expected to hold local crime in +check. But the machine is adaptable to contingencies. The "morning +report of crime" sent to headquarters shows daily the ebb and flow of +crime. A sudden wave of burglaries, for instance, might be met by +reinforcements from another district or from the Yard itself. + +Twice a month the big Council of Crime meets--a gathering at New +Scotland Yard at which thirty or forty of the senior detectives of the +metropolis, heads of districts, and headquarters men meet in conference +and compare notes. The movements of criminals are checked, particular +mysteries discussed. A. is puzzled by certain peculiarities in a robbery +at Hampstead; B. remembers that similar peculiarities were present in an +affair in which he arrested Bill Smith, at Brixton, some years ago. +Resolved unanimously that Bill's recent movements will bear looking +into. Opinions will be discussed of the identity of a swindler who has +been duping furniture dealers by selling them furniture from houses or +flats he has rented. Many a fraud has been detected by these informal +discussions in that bare green-painted room. + +One of the greatest difficulties that beset a detective of real life--it +does not so much affect the detective of fiction--is the securing of +evidence that is legally convincing. It is one thing to be morally +certain of a person's guilt; it is quite another thing to prove it to +the satisfaction of a jury. Especially is this so in case of murder. +There is probably no other great city in the world which can boast of no +murder mystery in which for two years the perpetrator remained +undiscovered. + +There were twenty-five cases of murder in 1913--the last year for which +figures are available--and twenty-four in 1912. In each one, in 1912, +the guilty person was known. The 1913 cases were thus disposed of. +Eleven arrests were made--one of a man who committed two murders--and in +nine the murderers committed suicide. Three of the other cases were +caused through illegal operations, which were not immediately reported +to the police. The remaining case was that of an Italian who fled +abroad. + +The real detective is a common-place man--common-place in the sense that +you would not pick him out of a crowd for what he is. He assiduously +avoids mannerisms. You will find him genial rather than mysterious. He +does not wear policeman's boots, and he is not always weaving a subtle +network of deductions. He is a plain business man of shrewd common-sense +who has been carefully trained to take the quickest and most accurate +way to a desired end. You can almost fancy him drawing up an +advertisement: + +"Criminals (assorted) for disposal. Large selection always available. +Special orders executed at the shortest notice. Apply Criminal +Investigation Department, New Scotland Yard, S.W." + +And on occasion he takes, so to speak, your burglar, your pickpocket, or +your forger off the shelf, carefully dusts his label, and dispatches +him, carriage paid, with a neat parcels note, for conveyance to his +ultimate destination by the old-established firm of transport agents in +the Old Bailey. + +The London detective grows up in an atmosphere of business. Romance, +adventure are incidental--and rare. Before he can bring off any big coup +he has thoroughly to understand the handling of the big machine of which +he forms part. And above all he must have courage--not merely physical +courage, but a courage that will assume big responsibility in an instant +of stress. + +Melville, sometime of the Special Branch, for instance, once committed a +flagrant illegality when he decoyed a dangerous Anarchist into a wine +cellar and locked him in while a great personage was passing through +London. And Mr. Frank Froest, when he snatched a noted embezzler from +the Argentine after all attempts to obtain his extradition had failed, +gave an example of the same kind of courage. Another detective, in a +case where the body of a murdered man had been hidden, did not hesitate +to arrest the murderer on the flimsy charge of "being in unlawful +possession of a pickaxe" to prevent flight while he continued his +search. In each case these men deliberately adopted risks to attain +their ends which nothing but success could warrant. + +There are 650 men attached to the Criminal Investigation Department, and +they have all learned their trade by tedious degrees. They all started, +even the superintendents at their head, as constables on street duty. + +Consider the precautions that are taken in recruiting the department. +The candidate has passed the stringent tests of character and physique +applied to all metropolitan police officers. He has been watched, with +unostentatious vigilance, for defects of temperament or intelligence. A +few months he has on street duty in uniform, and then he may apply for +transfer to the C.I.D. He may be recommended then by his divisional +superiors to Mr. McCarthy--the blonde blue-eyed Irishman who rules the +Central C.I.D.--who himself interviews and makes a rapid judgment of the +aspirant before he is passed on to an examining board of two veteran +chief detective-inspectors sitting with a Chief Constable. Some of the +questions he will be expected to answer run like this: "How may you +utilise the photographs of persons suspected of crime, and what +precautions would you take?" "What is meant by a 'special enquiry'?" +"Give examples of the use special enquiries can be put to in detecting +offenders against the law." + +These examinations, it may be said, are compulsory at every step in +promotion in the detective service, in addition to educational +examinations carried out independently by the Civil Service +Commissioners. Here is a question put at an examination for promotion to +detective-sergeant which might form the skeleton of a detective story. + +"A night-watchman, in going his rounds, discovers two men attempting to +break open a safe on the premises. Both men make good their escape by a +window, but one of them receives a blow on the head from the watchman +which causes blood to flow, while the other leaves his jacket behind. + +"The watchman can give a fair description of the men. In the jacket left +behind, which bears no maker's name, are found the following:--(1) A +return-half ticket to Birmingham from London; (2) A snapshot of a lady +having the appearance of a music hall performer, signed 'Kitty,' but +with no photographer's name; (3) a letter (no envelope) as follows:-- + + + "King Street. + + 'DEAR TOM.--I hope you are coming up on Tuesday. Things are bad + here since Bill got his three months. + 'MARY.' + + +"State as fully as you can what steps you suggest should be taken to +trace the offenders. How could the articles found be made use of in the +enquiry?" + +The preliminary examination is only the first step. The young man who +passes finds himself a "patrol on probation," with the knowledge that if +he does not justify himself he will be returned to the blue-coated +ranks. He is put to school again--the little-known detective school that +is maintained at Scotland Yard, with Detective-Inspector Belcher at its +head. There are lectures on law, and even lantern lectures. He is taught +the methods of criminals, from gambling sharps to forgers, from +pickpockets to petty sneak-thieves. The Black Museum primarily exists +for his instruction. He is shown jemmies, coining implements, +shop-lifting devices, and the latest word in the march of scientific +burglary--the oxy-acetylene apparatus. All that ingenuity and experience +can suggest for the confusion of the criminal is taught him. He is shown +where an expert must be called in, and where his own common-sense must +aid him. He is taught something of locks, something of finger-prints, +something of cipher-reading. He learns the significance of trivialities, +and the high importance of method. + +I have said that the detective must know when to call in the expert. +Science plays no inconspicuous part in many investigations, and there is +a little corps of consulting specialists whose aid is always available. +It was the work of the analyst that proved the guilt of men like Seddon +and Crippen. The microscopist has brought more than one forger to +justice. A murder was proved because a tool-maker's aid was enlisted to +decipher some scratches on a chisel. A blackmailer was captured because +a paper manufacturer identified a peculiar make of paper on which a +letter was written. And, of course, the help of the medical jurisprudent +is a commonplace of criminal investigation. + +The finger-print experts are on the staff; so, too, are the +photographers. There is a big magic lantern used in connection with the +latter department which has made clear more than one mystery by the +enlargement of some photograph. In one case an envelope with a blurred +post-mark was picked up on the scene of a robbery. It was enlarged, and +so the name of a town was picked out. In an hour or two the criminal was +under arrest. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MORE ABOUT INVESTIGATION. + + +Outside fiction, the real detective does not disguise himself in any +elaborate or melodramatic fashion. He will not wear a false moustache or +a wig, for instance. But the beginner is taught how a difference in +dressing the hair, the combing out or waxing of a moustache, the +substitution of a muffler for a collar, a cap for a bowler will alter +his appearance. They keep a "make-up" room at headquarters, its most +conspicuous feature being a photograph of a group of dirty-looking +ruffians--detectives in disguise. But it is a disguise the more +impenetrable because there is nothing that can go wrong with it. Yet not +half a dozen times in a year is the make-up room used. + +The kind of case in which a disguise is useful may be illustrated. Some +thieves had broken into St. George's Cathedral, at Southwark, and then +rifled the Bishop's Palace. The booty they secured was worth some three +thousand pounds, and they left not the faintest trace behind. The +officer charged with the investigation resolved on a long shot. He +dressed himself--I quote a newspaper report--"in a long overcoat and +slouched hat, sported a heavy chain, smoked a big cigar, and was well +supplied with gold." In this attire he made himself conspicuous about +Vauxhall. Among the "crooks" of that neighbourhood, it soon became known +that a Jew receiver--one Cohen, of Brick Lane, Whitechapel--was about, +and in a very short while the "receiver" knew all that he needed to +arrest the thieves and recover the stolen property. + +"Shadowing," too, is a matter of experience. Let anyone who doubts its +difficulties try the experiment of keeping sight of a person in a +frequented thoroughfare. When a suspect knows or guesses he is being +followed--as he inevitably does, if it is continued for a day or two--it +becomes ten times more difficult. Unless incessant watchfulness is +maintained, a shadowed person will be lost sight of in five minutes. +Shadowing is, when possible, always done by detectives in pairs, +sometimes in threes. Detective No. 1 shadows the suspect, detective No. +2 shadows his colleague. Then if the suspect stops or turns suddenly No. +1 walks innocently on and No. 2 takes up the chase. It is a wearisome +task when a person has to be watched incessantly, for it may not be +possible to assign a spot with any certainty for reliefs to continue the +trail. + +When the young detective begins his career he will carry a virgin +drab-coloured diary in his breast pocket, wherein he will be expected to +record every moment spent on duty, every penny he spends. If any +illusion remains in his mind that he will be turned loose on the streets +to catch thieves or murderers, it is quickly destroyed. Hard labour is +his portion. Small enquiries at pawnbrokers', searching directories to +verify addresses, running errands for his superiors, and doing all the +small odd jobs are his immediate concern. + +Only now and again is he called upon to play a minor part in an arrest. +But all the while he will be learning and improving his acquaintance +with the thieves in his district. All his painfully acquired knowledge +goes for little unless he can cultivate a certain friendship with the +rogues in the vicinity of his sphere of duty. + +The "informant" plays a big part in the workings of Scotland Yard. If +the old phrase, "Honour among thieves," had any truth in it, London +would be a poor place for honest men to live in. But gossip of the +underworld is easily attainable to ears that wish to catch it. + +One of the problems which beset the architect of New Scotland Yard was +this same problem of the informant. An inconspicuous entrance had to be +arranged by which access could be unobtrusively gained by a person too +shy to be seen walking publicly up the main entrance of the headquarters +of police. + +A great detective once told the writer how, in his early days, he set to +work to learn the world, and gained valuable acquaintance with the +deliberation that a young student might apply to the pursuit of an exact +science. He took a room in Jermyn Street, and began his studies in every +moment he could spare off duty. "I haunted night clubs; I went to +gambling houses; I was a frequenter of any resort where one was likely +to meet rogues or tricksters. I stored my memory with faces, and made +myself friendly with all sorts of people--waiters, barmen, and +hall-porters. So it was that I got hints that I should never have got by +any other method, and scores of times, years afterwards, I received +information from the channels I had formed when I began. To show the +value of some of these acquaintances I may tell you that when some idea +of my identity leaked out at one of these clubs an American crook--he +was drunk--declared openly that he would shoot me at sight. The waiter +contrived to draw the cartridges from his revolver, and to give me a +hint as I entered. And sure enough my man stood up, took aim, and pulled +the trigger of the empty weapon. I hit him on the jaw, and let it rest +at that. But if I hadn't treated that waiter right, I might have been a +dead man now." + +The personal factor is an important one in dealing with informants. +There is not very often ill-feeling between criminals and detectives. A +slight straining of red-tape will sometimes have wide-reaching results. +A detective, conveying a prisoner from Liverpool to London, offered the +latter a cigar. "You're a good sort," exclaimed the man impulsively. +"Tell you what; I'm in for it, I know. But I can do you a bit of good. +It was X. and Z. who did that Hatton Garden business." And so was +provided a clue to an apparently insoluble mystery. + +At the end of three months, the probationer, if he has qualified, finds +himself a fully-fledged "detective-patrol." Thereafter he has to pass an +examination whenever he is promoted, and may pass upwards through the +grades of third, second, and first class detective-sergeants to second, +first, and divisional inspector, and even eventually to chief +detective-inspector. + +The everyday duties of the C.I.D. are legion. There are "Informations" +passing between headquarters and the different stations daily, almost +hourly. Stolen property has to be traced, pawnbrokers visited, convicts +on licence watched, reports made, inquiries conducted by request of +provincial police forces. It means hard, painstaking work from morning +to night. + +As I have said, so far as is consistent with his duty, a man keeps on +good terms with those criminals he knows. It is a point of policy. They +know that the average detective does not wish them harm. If he has to +arrest them they know he will be scrupulously fair when it comes to +giving evidence. Often a detective will help a man out of his own pocket +when he knows that a case is really a necessitous one. He has no animus +against any person he arrests. His duty is merely to place in safe +custody the person he believes to be responsible for a breach of the +law. Conviction or acquittal matters nothing to him after that. He has +done his duty. + +A wide knowledge of human nature is necessary to his calling, and he +never forgets that the power of a police officer has its limitations. A +man who brings discredit or ridicule on the department has a short-lived +official life. + +There is another part of the Criminal Investigation Department which has +duties entirely distinct from that of the main body of detectives. That +is the Special Branch, under Superintendent Quinn, M.V.O.--a section +which, with the war, has suddenly become of great importance, for it has +now largely to do with the spy peril. Of its methods and organisation +little can be said, for obvious reasons. + +In ordinary times it concerns itself solely with the protection of high +personages, from the King and Queen and Cabinet Ministers to +distinguished foreign visitors. The Special Branch in the days of +suffragette outrages was the chief foe of the vote-seekers. It deals, +too, with all political offences which need investigation. + +There is a special squad of officers who deal with the white slave +traffic. These are assisted by a lady appointed by the Home Office. She +makes enquiries from women and children where victims might be reluctant +to confide in a man, and has other similar duties. + +The department is practically self-contained, working side by side with +the uniform branch under its own officers. The point of contact is at +superintendents of divisions, who exercise a supervising control. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE CROOKS' CLEARING-HOUSE. + + +Many high authorities have argued that the best way to prevent crime is +to keep all known criminals under lock and key, as we do lunatics. The +theory may be right or wrong, but it is not yet possible to put it into +practice. + +So Scotland Yard does the next best thing, and exercises a quiet, +unwearying, persistent surveillance on those hundreds of persons who are +likely to resume their depredations on society when they are released +from prison. + +For over fifty years--since 1862--there has been accumulating a library +of biography on which prison governors and police officials have worked, +which must by now include every living criminal by profession who has +enjoyed the hospitality of the State. + +The files--immense, dirty brown covered albums--each containing 6,000 +photographs--overflow through room after room and corridor after +corridor. There are smaller volumes with duplicate photographs, 500 in +each, which give particulars of marks or physical peculiarities. +Hundreds of thousands of records are kept, mostly illustrated by the +inevitable full and side face photographs, and each is kept up-to-date +with scrupulous care. + +The Convict Supervision Office, with its subsidiary Habitual Criminals +Registry, has within the last year or two been amalgamated with the +Finger-print Section under the general title of the Criminal Record +Office. Although the two departments work in unison and are, to a +certain point, interdependent, their work has to be conducted in +sub-departments. + +The Habitual Criminals Registry--I retain the old title for +convenience--is a sort of British Museum of crime. It is a central +bureau that is constantly being consulted from all parts of the kingdom, +and not seldom from all parts of the world. It has to be ready at any +moment to lay its hands on the record of any criminal that may be +demanded, and in this it is immensely helped by the Finger-print +Department, which can usually identify the person and supply the number +by which he is known. + +It sometimes happens, however, that no finger-prints are available. Then +search has to be made under the old system. The records are grouped by +the height of their subjects and the colour of their eyes and hair. +Thus, if a prisoner on remand is five feet nine, with blue eyes and +brown hair, the margin of search is limited to those indexed under those +characteristics. + +The records include photographs, descriptions, and particulars not only +of licence-holders and supervisees, but of every person who has been +convicted twice or more times of any crime, with a few exceptions, and +of all persons sentenced to hard labour for a month or more. + +They are a veritable "Who's Who" of the criminal world, and go even +further than that useful work of reference in supplying intimate details +of the appearance and idiosyncrasies of their subjects. + +But the keeping of recidivist records is only one part of the business +of the Criminal Record Office. This is the department which is +responsible for keeping a watchful eye on those people the public love +to call "ticket-of-leave men," but who are officially known as +licence-holders or supervisees. + +These are convicts who, through good conduct in prison, have been +released before the expiration of the full term of their sentence, or +persons ordered at the time of their conviction to undergo a period of +police supervision after they leave prison. This class is composed very +largely of an elusive gentry, and to keep track of their comings and +goings is no simple matter when they have reason to vanish for a season. + +There are usually about a thousand of these in London; the exact number +in 1913 was 811. Strict regulations are laid down, which they must +observe for the protection of the community; but, in practice, they are +afforded every facility for earning an honest living. + +Ever and anon the old myth recurs that "ticket-of-leave men" are hounded +and harassed by the police so that ultimately they are thrown back to +their old life in sheer despair. + +Listen to what the "Police Code" says: + + + "It is of great importance to avoid giving licence-holders and + supervisees any ground for alleging that they are being interfered + with by the police, or in any way prevented from leading an honest + life. When it is necessary to make enquiries at their addresses or + places of business it is desirable, if possible, that they should + be made by officers in plain clothes who are not known in the + district, and great care should be taken that the nature of the + inquiry should not be disclosed to anyone other than the + licence-holder or supervisee himself." + + +That regulation is carried out with a rigid regard for both the spirit +and the letter. + +The relations of the detective force with the men they watch are quite +friendly. It is a matter of policy that they should be so. Yet the +situation has its humours at times. + +There is a fund maintained at the office from which many ex-convicts +have been provided with a fresh start in a straightforward career. No +inconvenient enquiries are made, and the bare word of the applicant is +often accepted--within limits, of course. + +Does he want to sell flowers? A stock is provided. Is he a workman +needing tools? He is supplied. Another cannot get a berth because his +clothes are in pawn; a detective is sent to redeem them. + +There is no bother or fuss. Scotland Yard knows the class too well. It +knows that it is often cheated by liars; on the other hand, prompt help +may really redeem a man. Every chance is given a man to run straight, +however often he has fallen. And most of those who are helped do not +forget. + +There are, however--as there must be--many who take advantage of the +system. One man had his clothes taken out of pawn. He thanked the +office--and promptly went and hypothecated them at another place. There +was another coolly impudent scoundrel, with a turn for carpentry, who +made all sorts of odds and ends out of soap boxes. He always had some +plausible story. He wanted tools or materials, or his rent was in +arrears, or there was a doctor's bill to pay. Surprise visits to his +rooms in the East End always bore out his story. But, ultimately it was +discovered that he was doing the same thing with many charitable +societies--the Church Army, the Salvation Army, and others. He made +quite a good thing out of it while it lasted. + +But usually Scotland Yard is not imposed on twice by the same person. + +Police science has evolved the Criminal Record Office very gradually. +The problem of the incorrigible offender is one that many years' study +has not yet completely solved. When the licence system was first +initiated the police were instructed by the Home Office not to interfere +with the ticket-of-leave men, and, not strangely, these men found +opportunities of crime made easy for them. + +But prison reorganisation and police organisation went on hand in hand +until, in 1880, the Convict Supervision Office was established. Then, as +now, its chief work lay in classifying the records and photographs of +habitual criminals, compiling the "Rogues' Gallery," which is still of +inestimable value in the prevention of crime. + +The finger-print system is, of course, of enormous aid in +identification, and, as I have said, is a complete safeguard against the +possibility of a wrongful conviction. The ordinary detective is most +often engaged in tracing a criminal after a breach of the law has been +committed. The Criminal Record Office has the more delicate duty of +trying to prevent crime. + +It is a distinct sociological force, incessantly watchful that none of +those persons who are allowed out of prison on probation (which is +really what the licence system amounts to) drift back into the evil ways +or among evil associates. By this means it is endeavoured to cut at the +very roots of crime in this country, for it is a proved fact that the +larger proportion of serious offences which are brought before the +courts are the work of the habitual criminals. + +Thus, of 10,165 persons convicted of serious crime at assizes and +quarter sessions throughout the kingdom during 1913 nearly 70 per cent. +were recognised as having been convicted before--a significant fact +which emphasises the necessity of the eternal vigilance of the C.R.O. + +While I was gathering material on this subject I was prepared to find +that the police acted with severity. I was agreeably disappointed. I +found that they go as far as possible to the other extreme. + +In effect, the law says that a licence-holder or supervisee shall +produce a license when called upon, shall not habitually associate with +persons of bad character, shall not lead an idle or dissolute life, +shall report themselves monthly to the nearest police station (this +regulation does not apply to women), and report any change of address. + +But the law is carried out with a broad appreciation of the variations +in human nature--even criminal human nature. There are dangerous men who +must be watched closely; there are others it is unnecessary to keep +under close surveillance. + +A licence-holder, as distinct from a supervisee, is not necessarily +likely to become a criminal again. A trusted clerk in a City office who +has forged his employer's name, a solicitor absconding with trust funds, +a man who has committed manslaughter are not to be classed in this +respect with burglars, jewel thieves, or coiners. + +It is true that either class may hold licences, but the former are not +often sentenced to police supervision. They are not, in that sense, +habitual criminals. So the circumstances of every case are taken into +consideration. + +Sometimes a man is allowed to report himself by letter instead of in +person. Nor is a detective attached to a district, who might be known as +a police officer, allowed to make inquiries when the mere fact of his +calling might make things unpleasant for a licence-holder. A stranger +from Scotland Yard is sent. This applies especially when a man is in a +workhouse, a hospital, a Church Army labour home, and such places. + +To a limited extent the work of the department has been lightened by the +scheme which resulted in the establishment of the Central Association +for the Aid of Discharged Convicts--an amalgamation of various +prisoners' aid societies--which may recommend that a discharged prisoner +should be excused reporting to the police in certain cases. The result +has been that one man in every ten has been freed from the obligation to +report. + +There is a little row of figures in the last issue of "Judicial +Statistics" which affords a striking illustration of the work of the +department. It shows that during the year 1913 the number of persons +under police supervision in the Metropolitan Police district was 1,197. +This is what happened to them: + + + Supervision expired 229 + Supervision remitted by Home Secretary 3 + Removed to other districts 111 + Sent to prison 133 + Missing 49 + Left England 30 + Died 7 + + +No less than 421 were known or believed to be living honestly, and those +who were suspected of continuing their old career of roguery, but were +not convicted, numbered only 95. + +The management of the office is vested in Chief Detective-Inspector +Thomas--a shrewd, able man, with a wide experience, in which he has +gained a keen and extensive knowledge of criminals of all types--who +deals with those who come under his jurisdiction with a firm and tactful +hand. He has a staff of twenty-two assistants, which includes the only +two women detectives--if they are strictly detectives--in the service. +In point of fact these ladies are employed by the Home Office and +attached to Scotland Yard, so that strictly they must not be considered +"policewomen." + +These ladies are necessary in carrying out the policy of the department, +and their duties are wide. No man is allowed to visit a female +licence-holder or supervisee, mainly for the reason that his identity +might be suspected. So the women detectives take this in hand, and with +feminine tact manage to know all about their protegees, to give a +warning here, sympathetic advice there, in a way that would be difficult +for any man to do. + +Their work takes them at times into some of the worst quarters of +London, and all their pluck and firmness are sometimes needed, for +habitual women criminals are usually worse subjects to handle than the +habitual male criminal. + +For criminals, as for experts in other trades, all roads lead to London. +Your expert criminal, whatever his branch of rascality, sooner or later +tries his hand in the metropolis, and so there is a continual inward and +outward flow of persons the office must keep in touch with. + +This is done by the co-operation of the provincial police, and by the +issue of the "Habitual Criminals Register," which gives detailed +particulars of persons entered in the files of a department. This is +sent to every police force in the kingdom. + +There is another very useful publication which has brought about the +downfall of many an ambitious rascal. It is called the "Illustrated +Circular," and its subject is travelling criminals. + +These form a clever, mobile fraternity who operate swindles and +robberies in one part after another, dodging in and out of various +police districts. They are as slippery as eels, and, without some means +of codifying information as to their movements and delinquencies, many +of them would defy justice with impunity. + +The "Illustrated Circular" forms a link between the police jurisdictions +in this respect. It gives descriptions and particulars of the latest +known movements of itinerant criminals, and publishes photographs of +them, to enable police officers to recognise them wherever they may go. + +Every movement made by a travelling criminal is recorded in the +"Circular." Men who have found themselves too closely watched by the +Bristol police may, for example, hope to find Cardiff less vigilant. But +the "Illustrated Circular" tells of their departure from Bristol, and +Cardiff is on the alert. There is little hope of escape from that +all-pervading vigilance. + +The _Police Gazette_, too, is issued by this department twice a week, +not only to all the police forces of the kingdom, but to the Colonies +and the nearest European countries. This is the latest police move to +checkmate the operations of the more widely travelling rogues. + +No less important are the "Special Release Notices" or, as it is now +called, the _Weekly List of Habitual Criminals_. Since 1896 prison +officials have furnished to Scotland Yard, every week, a list of +prisoners about to be released who are habitual criminals. This list, +which gives a detailed description of each man, and his index number in +the records, is sent to every police force in the country. It is so made +easy to draw a conclusion should an outbreak of burglaries commence in a +district wherein a burglar has lately been released. + +In a corner of one room in Scotland Yard is piled a miscellaneous heap +of thieves' equipment--jemmies, chisels, scientific safe-breaking +implements, and other oddments. The office periodically destroys these, +though their fashioning has probably cost skilled workmen much time and +trouble. Only a new invention is spared, and that so that it may be +placed in the Black Museum for instructive purposes. + +In other rooms is kept the personal property of the prisoners still +undergoing sentence. It was, I think, David Harum who remarked that +there was as much human nature in some folks as there is in others--if +not more. A glance round this mixed assortment proves the truth of the +truism. + +A bag of golf clubs, a fishing rod, cameras, books, clothes, rings, +watches, jewellery--all give an index to the temperament of the +individual owning them. Money, too, is often kept here by the wish of +the convicts themselves. Personal belongings are restored at the +expiration of a sentence, but valuable articles--and many find their way +to the store-room--are not restored except on absolute proof of +ownership. When a claim is doubtful the matter is referred to a +magistrate, and on his order the disposal of the property rests. + +The department plays no small part in tightening the meshes of the net +that keeps evil-doers within bounds. It does its duty with kindliness, +but without fear or favour; but the difficulties of the work are so +enormous that they could hardly be exaggerated. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FINGER-PRINTS. + + +Once upon a time a wily burglar sat in his cell at Brixton awaiting +trial. He knew that conviction for his latest escapade was inevitable. + +That troubled him little. As he would probably have said, he could do +the sentence he was likely to get for a first offence "on his head." But +it was by no means a first offence. Stored away at Scotland Yard was a +long list of little affairs in which he had been concerned which would +not incline the judge to leniency. + +John Smith--that is not his real name, but it will serve--knew that +presently warders would ask him to press inky fingers on a white sheet +of paper, so that the resulting prints should be sent to Scotland Yard. +Inevitably then his previous ill-doings would be disclosed. They might +make all the difference between a nominal sentence as a first offender +and five years' penal servitude as an habitual criminal, to say nothing +of police supervision afterwards. + +John Smith thought hard, and at last got an idea. He broke a tag from +his boot-lace and began to skin the tips of his fingers until, as he +thought, every trace of a pattern by which he could be identified had +been obliterated. + +Notwithstanding his bleeding hands, he smiled cheerfully when he was +reported for prison hospital treatment. The sequel affords a saddening +reflection on misplaced ingenuity and endurance. He had only penetrated +the outer skin, and it began to grow again. + +They nursed his bandaged hands with infinite care, for a conclusion as +to his record had become obvious. And then officers took his prints +after all--and discovered that he was none other than Bill Brown, with a +criminal history to which an Old Bailey judge listened with unaffected +interest. Bill--or John--got his five years after all. + +I have told this little story because it affords an excellent +illustration of the work of the finger-print department at Scotland +Yard--a department which serves not only the Metropolitan Police, but +every police force in the kingdom. + +There is a great deal of confusion in the public mind between +Bertillonage and the finger-print system. Even responsible London +newspapers fell into the error, when M. Bertillon died, of ascribing to +him the invention of the system--with which he had nothing to do. + +To many people has been ascribed the discovery that finger-prints are an +infallible method of identification. The knowledge however was of little +use till the inventive genius of one man worked out a simple method of +classification for police purposes, so that prints could be compared +almost instantly with those on record. That man was Sir Edward Henry, +long before he came to Scotland Yard, when he was in the Indian police +service. + +The Henry system has almost entirely superseded the Bertillon system +throughout the world, and there is little doubt that it will ultimately +become universal. Thousands of criminals who would otherwise have +escaped a full measure of punishment for their misdeeds curse its +author. It is in this department that police science has been brought to +its highest pitch of perfection--a perfection begot of organisation. + +Every prisoner for a month or longer nowadays has his prints taken a +little before he is discharged. These prints, if they are not already in +the records of Scotland Yard, are added to them, and a number gives the +key to the man's record in the Habitual Criminals Registry. + +In this manner there has accumulated since 1901, when the system was +first put in force, a collection of more than two hundred thousand +prints. It is all a matter of system, of scientific and literal +exactness, and there is no margin of error. A mistake in identification +by finger-prints is literally impossible. + +As everyone knows, the ridges at the tips of the fingers maintain their +formation from birth to death, and even after. Nothing can change them. +It is a possibility, though I believe it has never been known to happen, +that there are two people in the world who have the markings on one +finger-tip exactly alike. But even that incredible chance is guarded +against, by taking the markings of the whole ten fingers. It will be +realised how great a miracle it would be for two persons to have exactly +the same lines, broken in exactly the same way, in exactly the same +order on their two hands. That fact is the root principle of the +finger-print work. + +It is necessary to point out that the existence of the department is +not so much for the purpose of detecting crime as of detecting +criminals. In the administration of justice a judge takes the past +career of a prisoner into consideration when passing sentence. The main +work of the department is to furnish the clue to a past career by +scrutinising the finger-prints of persons on remand to discover whether +they are habitual criminals or not. + +A thousand aliases will not help a man, no change of appearance, no +protestations of mistake, if his prints correspond with those in the +files. But it is all so simply done. There is nothing spectacular, +nothing imposing about the process. Practically all that is needed is a +piece of tin, some printer's ink, and a sheet of paper. Within a few +minutes afterwards his record can be known. + +Compare this with the old Bertillon system of anthropometric +measurements. Bertillon's system depends on the fact that after a person +reaches maturity certain portions of the body are always the same in +measurement. The theory is sound, but the difficulties in the way of +applying it are immense. + +In his book Sir Edward Henry has pointed out the defects of the system. +The instruments are costly, measurers have to be specially trained, and +even so may make a mistake--an error of two twenty-fifths of an inch +will prevent identification--the search among the records may take an +hour or more, and, moreover, through carelessness or inattention, the +whole data may be wrong. For six years--from 1895 to 1901--this system +was in force at Scotland Yard. The maximum number of identifications in +any one year was 500. In 1913, by the aid of finger-prints, 10,607 +persons were identified. + +Roughly, it is all a matter of classification into "arches," "loops," +"whorls," and "composites." It is intricate to describe, but simple to +carry out. To the uninitiated it inevitably suggests the old problem +"think of a number, double it--." + +What happens is this: Every print for primary classification purposes is +considered as a loop or a whorl. The fingers are taken in pairs and put +down something like this: + + + L. L. W. L. L. + -------------------- + L. W. W. W. W. + + +Now a whorl occurring in the first pair would count sixteen, in the +second, eight, and so on. The loops are ignored. Consequently, the +number in the above formula is: + + + 0. 0. 4. 0. 0. + ---------------- + 0. 8. 4. 2. 1. + + +These are added together and become 4-15. The figure 1 is added above +and below, and the searcher knows that he has to look for the record he +wants in the sixteenth file of Number 5 horizontal row in a cabinet +specially arranged. + +Of course, sub-classification is carried much farther than this, but it +is scarcely necessary to elaborate the point. + +Day by day, the prison governors from all parts of the country are +sending in records to be added to the files, and police authorities, +also from all parts of the country, are asking for prisoners to be +identified. + +An interesting story concerns two men whom we will call Robinson and +Jones, who were tried for different offences the same day. Robinson was +rich; Jones was not. Robinson received a long sentence, Jones a light +one. + +Probably they arranged it all in the prison van, but anyhow, when they +reached the gaol they had changed identities--and sentences. All went +well until a short time before the _soi-disant_ Jones was due to be +released. Then his finger-prints were taken, compared with those of +Jones in the files, and found not to correspond. + +Half an hour later wires were being exchanged between Scotland Yard and +the prison, and, to the mutual consternation of the two men, the little +scheme was revealed. Finger-prints had outwitted them. + +Save for a few filing cabinets stretching from floor to ceiling in a +well-lighted room, there is little apparent difference between the +Finger-print Department at Scotland Yard and the interior of an ordinary +City office. Men pore over foolscap sheets of paper with magnifying +glasses, comparing, classifying, and checking, day in, day out. + +They are all detectives, but their work is specialist work, totally +different to that of the bulk of the men of the C.I.D. It may be that +sometimes they realise that a man's life or liberty depends on their +scrutiny, but for the most part they do their work with cold +deliberation and machine-like precision. Is one set of finger-marks +identical with another? That is all they have to answer. It is the pride +of the department that since it has been established it has never made a +mistake. + +At its head is Chief Detective Inspector Charles Collins, an enthusiast +in identification work, who has seen the system change from the old days +when detectives paid periodical visits to Holloway Prison to see if they +could recognise prisoners on remand, and when profile and full-face +photographs were used for the records, to that now in use which he has +had no small share in bringing to its high state of efficiency. + +He can read a finger-print as other men can read a letter, and has even, +for the purposes of study, taken prints of the fingers of monkeys at the +Zoo. Many times has he given evidence as an expert in cases where +finger-prints have formed part of the evidence. His cold, scientific +analysis has always convinced the most sceptical, and always a +conviction has followed. + +He wrote the chapter dealing with the photographing and enlarging of +finger-prints in Sir Edward Henry's standard work on the subject, and is +something of a magician in the way he can detect a mark when none is +obvious to the naked eye. + +I have seen a man press his fingers on a clean sheet of paper, +apparently without leaving the faintest trace. But Mr. Collins is not +baffled so. A pinch of black powder--graphite is commonly +used--scattered over the paper, and behold the prints standing out in +high relief. A grey powder will act in the same way on a dark surface, +and a candle which has been pressed by the fingers may have the print +rendered clear by a judicious use of ordinary printer's ink. + +A corps of expert photographers, equipped with the latest appliances, is +attached to the department, and their services are in constant +requisition by the C.I.D. for many purposes other than those of +finger-prints. One room is entirely devoted to a powerful lantern +apparatus by which every photograph may be thrown up to a hundred times +its normal size for the purpose of minute study. This has often proved +useful in detecting forgeries as well as aiding the work of the +Finger-print Department. + +I have said that the primary purpose of the department is not the +detection of crime. Nevertheless, it has played no small part in the +solution of mysteries where other clues have failed. There was the case +of the Stratton brothers, for instance, where the print on a cash-box +led to arrest, although other evidence aided the conviction. + +Perhaps the most interesting case is that which first focussed the +public attention on the value of the system. It occurred in 1898, +shortly after the present Commissioner initiated the system in India. He +himself tells the story. + +The manager of a tea-garden was found murdered, and a safe and +despatch-box robbed of several hundred rupees. Suspicion was at first +divided among the coolies and cook, the relatives of a woman with whom +the dead man had carried on an intrigue, a wandering gang of Kabulis, +and an ex-servant whom he had prosecuted for theft--a wide enough field, +in all conscience. + +But the police were unexpectedly helped in their investigation by the +discovery in the despatch-box of a small light-blue book, a calendar in +Bengali characters. On the cover were two indistinct smudges. Under a +magnifying-glass these proved to be the impressions of a blood-stained +finger. + +Search was made in the records of the Bengal police, and it was found +that the finger-print was that of the right thumb of the ex-servant. + +He was arrested some hundreds of miles away, and charged with murder and +robbery. On the ground that it would be unsafe to convict him of murder, +as no one saw him do it, he was acquitted on that charge, but was +convicted of theft. + +It would be possible to write largely on cases where finger-prints have +afforded culminating proof of a person's guilt. One that has a grim +touch of humour may be recalled. + +A constable pacing his beat in Clerkenwell noticed a human finger on one +of the spikes of the gate of a warehouse. Closer investigation showed +that the place had been broken into, and that the marauder had been +disturbed and taken to flight in panic. In scaling the gates he had +caught the little finger of his right hand on the spikes, and it had +been torn away. + +It was sent to the Finger-print Department and identified as that of a +man well-known to the police, and the word was passed round the C.I.D. +to keep a bright look-out for him. Time went on. The finger, carefully +kept in spirits, remained at Scotland Yard. + +Then one day a detective arrested a man for picking pockets near the +Elephant and Castle. One hand was bandaged, but the prisoner was +unwilling to say what was the matter with it. Soon the reason of his +reluctance was disclosed. + +The Finger-print Department held his missing finger. + +But if the Finger-print Department makes it hard for the guilty, it +often helps the innocent. Such a case as that of Adolph Beck would now +be impossible. There are two criminals alive to-day who are said to be +so much alike that the difference can only be told by their +finger-prints. + +One hears often that the police will bolster each other up when a +mistake is made. That is, of course, preposterously false throughout the +service. There have been cases where police officers have been prepared, +quite honestly, to swear to a man as an old offender, and the department +has stepped in in time to prevent the error. + +It should be understood that the fact of finger-prints being found at or +near the scene of a crime does not mean that they are of any use in +solving a mystery, unless facsimiles are in the records--that is to say, +a criminal has been convicted before. This rarely happens in the case of +murder, for the reason that a murderer is unlikely, in an official +sense, to be an habitual criminal. Of course, if a person is suspected +and arrested it is easy to compare his finger-prints with those found +where the crime was committed. + +In the system the human liability to err is almost completely +eliminated. A prisoner's prints are registered automatically, and, to +prevent any chance of mistake, are examined and checked by a series of +officials, each of whom signs the record. + +Nor do those engaged in this business have an idle time. Between 70,000 +and 80,000 sets of prints are dealt with every year. The following list +shows the number of recognitions effected since the system came into +being at Scotland Yard. It must, of course, be remembered that they +have increased as the number of records has grown:-- + + + 1902 1,722 + 1903 3,642 + 1904 5,155 + 1905 6,186 + 1906 6,776 + 1907 7,701 + 1908 9,446 + 1909 9,960 + 1910 10,848 + 1911 10,400 + 1912 10,677 + 1913 10,607 + + +That, in itself, is a record which justifies the faith now placed in the +system. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE SCHOOL OF POLICE. + + +In the long chain forged for the preservation of law and order in the +metropolis the constable is the chief and, in some ways, the most +important link. The heads of Scotland Yard have to make it certain that +at moments of unexpected strain or heavy stress no link will fail. To +that end every candidate for the Metropolitan Force is rigorously tested +and prepared, physically, morally, and mentally, before he becomes an +accredited member of the service. + +For, to vary the simile, the constable is the foundation on which all +the rest is built. Every man in grades right up to the superintendent +has begun at the bottom of the ladder. You will have seen the constable, +placid and unemotional, pacing the streets at the regulation beat of two +and a half miles an hour--do you know how much he has to know before he +is trusted alone on his duty? + +He has to be ready to act decisively and firmly at an instant's notice, +to solve on the spur of the moment some intricate problem of public +order, to know the law, so that he may arrest a person on one occasion, +and let him go on another, to act as guide or consultant to the public, +to aid at a fire, or capture a burglar. + +He must know everything out of the common that comes in his sphere of +duty, enter the particulars fully in his note-book, and be prepared to +swear to the accuracy of his notes at any time. It would be easy for a +man less carefully selected and trained to make a slip of judgment, to +succumb to a temptation. + +It would be futile to pretend that there are twenty thousand plaster +saints in the Metropolitan Police--there are not. Yet, man for man, in +efficiency, in honesty, there is not their equal in the world in any +profession. + +The Metropolitan Police is a business body, controlled by business men, +and run on business methods. But it is a specialist business, and so it +has to train its recruits, making sure, first of all, that they are of +the right material. + +Before Sir Edward Henry's time a candidate had only to fulfil a medical +qualification and a test of character, and then, after a few weeks' +drill at Wellington Barracks and a few days' watching the procedure in a +police court, he was turned out into the street to get on as best he +could. A veteran detective officer told me how he was treated twenty +years ago. + +"I was pretty raw," he said. "I came straight out of a Bedfordshire +village, and was boarded out at a sergeant's house. He put fourteen of +us in a back room with a tiny window, and charged us 14s. 9d. a week out +of our pay of 15s. The food! I should smile. In case we overdid our +eating, meals were never placed on the table until just before we had to +parade at Wellington Barracks for drill. + +"Then we were sent to the old Worship Street Court. We were glad enough +at last to get out on the streets for a breath of air with all our +troubles before us. The very first day, I was called on to arrest one +of a gang of men in Whitechapel. His friends had knives, and they +threatened to 'lay me out' if I touched him. I didn't know whether I was +justified, but I drew my truncheon and swore I'd brain the first man who +came near me. But I was in a cold sweat all the time. They didn't coddle +us in those days." + +That was the old system. The wonder is that the police did so well. But +now all that is changed. A policeman is prepared for his +responsibilities by a thorough course of training, as scientific in its +way as that of a doctor, a lawyer, or a school teacher. + +Instead of going on his beat redolent of the plough, with a thousand +pitfalls before him, the young constable now has a thorough theoretical +acquaintance with his duties before ever he dons a helmet. More than +that, he has been shrewdly observed for weeks to see whether his +temperament is fitted to his calling. If it is not, be he ever so able +in other respects, he is of no use as a police officer. + +In a big building, hidden away in a back street at Westminster, the +embryo policeman learns the first principles of his trade. Peel House, +as this school of police is called, was established by the present +Commissioner a few years ago, and since then has trained thousands of +men. + +Always there will be found two or three hundred young men gathered +together from the remote corners of the British Isles, being gradually +moulded into shape by a corps of instructors under Superintendent +Gooding. + +They have two characteristics in common--a character without flaw, and a +good physique. For the rest, there are all types, with the agricultural +labourer predominating--a country-house footman, an Irishman from some +tiny village near Kilkenny, a sailor, a clerk, a provincial constable +hoping to better himself, and, more raw than the rawest, men from +Devonshire, Yorkshire, Wales and Scotland. + +It is said that a _good_ Irishman makes the best officer, while perhaps +the least teachable is the Londoner. A countryman is fresh clay to the +potter's hands, the Londoner has much to unlearn before he can be +taught. + +While these men are undergoing their training, they are not +uncomfortable. Peel House has all the comforts and conveniences of a big +hotel and club. Each man has his own cubicle; there are a billiard-room, +a library, gymnasium, shooting gallery, scrupulously kept dining-rooms +and kitchens, and, for the primary purpose of the school, a number of +class-rooms. + +Mr. Gooding holds no light responsibility. His duty is to see that no +man leaves the school to be attached to a division who is in the +faintest degree lacking in all that goes to make an officer of the +Metropolitan Police. + +Tactful and sympathetic, a shrewd judge of character, able to +discriminate between nervousness and stupidity, a disciplinarian, with a +gift of lucid exposition, an organiser, and a man with a fixed belief in +the honourable nature of his calling. That is Superintendent Gooding, +and his characteristics are reflected in his staff. + +As the _corps d'elite_ of the police services of the world, the +Metropolitan Police is careful in the selection of its men. Before a +candidate is admitted to Peel House he must prove that he is of +unblemished good character, be over twenty and under twenty-seven years +of age, stand at least 5 ft. 9 ins. in his bare feet, and be of a strong +constitution, free from any bodily complaint. + +Then he is passed on to the school, which will be his home for at least +eight weeks--unless before that time he is shown to be obviously unfit +for the service. There he will work from nine in the morning till +half-past seven at night, learning the thousand and one laws, written +and unwritten, that a policeman has to obey. In cold black and white the +curriculum, of which even a summary would occupy many thousand words, +looks formidable. But so minutely, so lucidly is everything taught that +a man of average intelligence finds no difficulty in grasping it. + +Every contingency that a constable may have to face, from dealing with +insecure cellar flaps to the best method of stopping a runaway horse, to +action in cases of riot, and the privileges of Ambassadors is gone into. +Nothing is omitted. And day after day the instructors insist: "Remember, +the honour of the service is in your hands; you are to serve, not to +harass, the public." + +That is dwelt upon and reiterated until it is indelibly impressed upon +the memory of the most dull student. + +A candidate begins in the fifth class. He is supplied with an official +pocket-book and a thin paper-covered book called "Duty Hints" wherein is +set forth, carefully indexed, a mass of concise information as to laws, +regulations, addresses of hospitals, and so on. Should he ever, when a +fully-fledged constable, be in a difficulty he has but to refer to his +"Duty Hints" to have his course made clear. It is, in fact, a _precis_ +of the "Instruction Book," which deals with everything a police officer +should know and be. + +He is told the difference between a beat and a fixed point. He is shown +how to make a report, and warned of the perils of making erasures or +tearing leaves from his pocket-book. The unobtrusive marks to be placed +on windows, doors, walls, shutters, and padlocks so that he shall know +if they have been disturbed are made clear to him. He is told what to do +should there be a sudden death in the street, should the roadway +subside, should a street collision occur, should a gas explosion occur, +should he be assaulted. He is initiated into the mysteries of the Dogs +Act, the Highways Act, the Vagrancy Act, the Aliens Act, the Lottery +Act, the Licensing Act, the Larceny Act, the Motor-Car Acts, the +Locomotive Acts, the Children's Act, and others. + +Nor is he merely crammed with these things. He has to know them, to be +able to make a plain report, to answer an unexpected question. + +As he passes upwards to the first class his instructor reports as to his +progress and prospects of becoming an efficient police officer. It is a +tedious process, this hammering raw countrymen--for most of the +candidates are from the country--into serviceable policemen. Yet it is +worth it. + +Very craftily a candidate is instilled with the self-reliance and +confidence so necessary in a police officer. He is not bullied or +badgered. The staff patiently discriminate between nervousness and +stupidity. The ordeal of giving evidence for the first time, for +instance, is feared by a raw countryman, and for that reason a +practical object-lesson is given to the senior classes at Peel House +once a week. + +Three of the instructors play the part of shopkeeper, thief, and +constable. Little strain is put on the imagination of the men. They see +everything for themselves, from the actual robbery to the procedure at +police station and police court. In quiet, level tones Mr. Gooding gives +the reason for every action taken. Then the men are called upon, one by +one, to take charge of the case. Mr. Gooding explains: + +"Now take hold of your prisoner. No, no, you must not use ju-jitsu +except in self-defence. Take hold of your man firmly, so that he is in +custody. That's it. Bring him to the station. You will let him stand by +the dock and outside. In no circumstances must a person be put in the +dock unless he is violent. Now I am the inspector on duty. What is +this?" + +Candidate: "At 2.40 this afternoon, Sir, I was on duty in the Strand, +when I heard loud cries of 'Stop thief!' I saw this man running towards +me, closely followed by prosecutor. I stopped him till prosecutor came +up, who said (referring to official pocket-book): 'This man has stolen a +gent's gold wristlet watch from my shop 1,009 Strand. I wish to charge +him.' The prisoner then said: 'This is monstrous. I really must +protest.' I then took him into custody and brought him here, Sir." + +Mr. Gooding (suddenly): "Suppose he had been a well-dressed man and had +said, 'You're a fool, constable, I am Lord So-and-So, and I shall report +you to the Commissioner for this stupid insolence'?" + +Candidate: "I should have still brought him to the station, Sir." + +Mr. Gooding: "Why did you refer to your pocket-book for what he said? +Couldn't you remember it?" + +Candidate: "Yes, Sir, but it is necessary to give the exact words as far +as possible. I am not to put my own construction on what is said." + +So the case goes on, with now and again a little lecture in the law of +evidence or the police regulations. + +"Remember, the only evidence you may give is as to the prisoner's +actions, your own actions, things said by the prisoner or in the +prisoner's presence--_not_ things heard. In a court you swear to speak +the whole truth--all you know in favour of, as well as against, a +prisoner. It matters not a jot to you whether a man is convicted or +discharged. You are not to judge. Every person whom you have to take +into charge must be considered as innocent, and is innocent in the eyes +of the law, until proved guilty. Don't forget that." + +After which the prisoner is searched, makes some remarks, and the charge +sheet is signed. Then there comes another little hint--one of vast +significance in view of the misapprehensions of many of the public of +the police system. + +"You must never take your own prisoner to the cells unless directly +ordered to. A constable in reserve will see to that. A man may bear you +ill-will and may assault you in the corridor or he may say that you have +assaulted him. If you only bring him to the station such a charge can be +easily refuted." + +It is in this manner that the constable is shown not only the purpose +of the regulations but how easily a little thing may trip him up. + +Following the charge-room procedure, the case is brought before a +magistrate. Each man is warned to state exactly what took place. The +evidence is the same as at the station, but, in addition, the result of +the search has to be stated, and what the prisoner said on being +charged. + +A great trap this last. Many of the men omit it altogether, and again +and again the importance it might have as bearing on the guilt or +innocence of the accused is pointed out. But always the instructors are +kindly, forbearing, tactful. A man blunders. + +"Perhaps you feel a bit nervous," says Mr. Gooding. "Go to the other end +of the room. The rest of the class look this way. Now." + +And so the candidate gets through, without the disturbing effect of +twenty or thirty pairs of eyes fixed on him. + +I cannot refrain from emphasising the manner in which the relations +between police and public are dealt with during the training--a matter +of greater importance, to my mind, than anything else taught in Peel +House. A course of lectures is interspersed with lessons and drill on, +among others, the following subjects: + + + Truthfulness, Civility, + Command of temper, + Inquiries by public, + Complaints by public, + Constable to readily give his number on request, + Tact, Discretion, Forbearance, + Avoidance of slang terms, + Necessity of cultivating power of observation, + Liberty of the subject (unnecessary interference, etc.), + Offences against discipline (drunkenness, drinking on duty, etc.) + + +To familiarise the men with the surroundings, they are taken sometimes +to a real police court while a magistrate is not sitting, and lectured +on the surroundings. Everything is done with the idea of wearing away +their rough edges, of smoothing the path for them when they should come +to have only their own knowledge to rely on. All that takes place at +Peel House is aimed to that end. There are classes on such subjects as +reading, writing, grammar, composition, the use of maps, drawing plans. +There is foot drill, Swedish drill, revolver practice, and ambulance +classes--all these in addition to an acquaintance with police law and +the routine work of the force. + +As they progress they are taken to the Black Museum at Scotland Yard, +where they are given a practical demonstration of the kind of tools +criminals use--from scientific and complicated oxygen and acetylene +apparatus, used to break into safes, to the simple but efficacious +walking-stick to which may be attached a bird-limed piece of wood for +lifting coins off a shelf behind a shop or public-house counter. + +So for eight weeks the candidate is taught the manner of work he will +have to perform. He is given every opportunity to prove himself capable, +but at any time he may be courteously told that he is not fitted for the +work; 15 or 20 per cent. of the candidates are rejected for one reason +or another before their term is over. + +But, thorough as the training is, no constable is considered fully +qualified when he is drafted from Peel House to a division. Tuition, +both theoretical and practical, still goes on while he is a unit in the +station. He goes out with an older man to see how things are done, to +learn his "beat" or "patrol." There is a class-room at the big police +stations where his education is carried on. For a period too, he must +attend an L.C.C. evening school. And at last he becomes a unit ranked +efficient in the critical and criticised blue-coated army of which he is +a member.[3] + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] Peel House during the war has been temporarily converted into a club +for overseas soldiers. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +IN A POLICE STATION. + + +Ten o'clock at night, and the West End. + +In a back street a lonely blue lamp twinkled, a symbol of law and order +placed high above the door of the police station. The street itself was +appallingly quiet and gloomy. Yet a few hundred yards away the radiantly +lighted main thoroughfares seethed with thousands of London's pleasure +seekers, and an incessant stream of cabs and motor cars flowed to and +from restaurants and theatres. + +Here were men and women in search of pleasure and excitement, and other +men and women on the alert for opportunities of roguery that might +present themselves amid the stir of gaiety. There were the "sad, gay +girls" sitting in the night cafes and strolling the streets. +Pickpockets, beggars, and blackmailers were mingled with the crowds. A +little later and unwise diners would begin to come unsteadily into the +streets. + +The West End, as the police know, is always pregnant with possibilities. +And things usually happen after the time I have sketched. A fight, a +robbery, even a murder is always a contingency. + +There is a class of men and women who frequent the neighbourhood among +whom passions run high. From a police point of view, it is a difficult +place to handle--a district even more difficult than the East End, for +here the iron hand must be concealed in the velvet glove. Every +officer, from constable to inspector, must be possessed of infinite tact +and firmness. Every man on patrol, point, or beat has usually at least +one delicate decision to make in a night. + +Yet the lonely blue lamp shines serenely, and serenely the constable on +reserve duty at the door stands at ease. Within, under the shaded +electric lights, men are at work as quietly and methodically as though +they did not hold the responsibility for the safety of one of the +richest quarters of the richest city in the world in their hands for +eight hours at least. During that time, as a rule, it is the busiest +police station in London. + +For all that it has special problems to deal with, this station is +typical in procedure, discipline, and other essentials to nearly two +hundred others scattered over London. There can be no uniformity in the +classes with which the Metropolitan Police has to deal. + +For the convenience of visitors and inquirers, a couple of waiting rooms +are provided, a first and second class, so that the respectable citizen +does not find himself in the unpleasant company of a "tough," who may be +a pickpocket come to enquire about a friend's welfare, or a not too +cleanly ticket-of-leave man. + +Near by is the inspector's room, a lofty, well-lighted chamber furnished +with high desks, tables, and a variety of official books and papers. +Everyone is quietly busy here, for there are always reports and records +to be made of everything that occurs, of callers, complaints, lost +property, inquirers, charges, particulars of persons reported for +summonses. + +Clerks in police officers' uniform bustle to and fro. In an adjoining +room there are telegraphists and telephone operators receiving and +dispatching messages. + +There are two telephones--one attached to the ordinary public system, +the other to the private system of the Metropolitan Police. The +telegraphs are a couple of tape machines--one for receiving, the other +for dispatching. Every message is automatically recorded. + +A small, quiet room, one side occupied by a couch, and all sorts of +medical and surgical appliances at hand--this is the divisional +surgeon's room. He lives close by and can be on the spot in three +minutes, if necessary, but on busy nights he is at the station. + +On the first and second floors are the offices of the superintendent +(for this is the chief station of the division) and the C.I.D. The +detective force is a strong one, composed of men, specially picked--men +of good appearance and address, who have never-ending work in the +district. + +Below the ground floor there are open pillared halls with asphalted +floors where the men assemble for parade, and, before they are marched +off under the command of their section-sergeants, have orders and +information read to them. There is a drying-room through which a current +of hot air continually passes, where an officer may place his sodden +clothes after a wet day or night in the street, and a room where the +instruction of young constables is continued under the supervision of a +sergeant after they have been drafted from Peel House. + +The personnel of the station is interesting. Apart from the +superintendent and the chief-inspector, who are in control of the whole +division, it is in charge of a sub-divisional inspector, with a dozen or +more other inspectors under him and over three hundred sergeants and +constables. + +The bulk of the men are single--it is an expensive district for married +men to find quarters in--and live, not at the station itself, but at a +couple of section-houses some little distance away. There they have +cubicles, where they sleep, big reception rooms, sitting-rooms, +dining-rooms, a canteen, and all the comforts of a club. + +With these men a complex game of chess has to be played, varying +according to the ever-changing conditions of the West End, where one day +may see a Suffragette window-smashing campaign, and the next a royal +procession, and the following a riot in a park. To deal with these +occasions a number of depots are available--private houses, garages, and +other places where bodies of police may remain out of sight, but +instantly available. + +There have been many fantastic stories told, to which the public lend a +sometimes too ready ear, of what occurs in police stations. Always one +can find some person to assert positively that the police as a body are +bribed by bookmakers or prostitutes--that, in fact, there exists a +practical blackmail. These things were investigated and disproved at a +Royal Commission some years ago. They are pure silliness. + +Take the case of the police station with which I am dealing, situated +where it might be supposed there were ample chances of such a thing. +Such a suspicion involves a gigantic conspiracy among more than 300 +men. And by the Metropolitan Police system every man promoted is +transferred to another division, so that the rank and file would have to +induce a continually changing series of strangers to connive at their +malpractices. It is on the face of it absurd. + +I recall a little story which shows how keen an eye the public has for +the probity of the police. A famous detective had occasion to question a +veteran constable, and took him into a tea-shop to do so. At the close +of the conversation he handed the officer a half-crown. A day or two +later a highly respectable country vicar wrote to Scotland Yard. He had +been having a cup of tea at a certain tea-shop. There he had seen a +constable, Mr. So-and-So, in talk with a suspicious character, and had +seen money pass. Of course, there was an investigation, and it was a +long time before the "suspicious character"--who is one of the +best-dressed men at Scotland Yard--heard the last of it. + +Let us see the method of "taking a charge." Prisoners, as they are +brought in, are placed in one of a couple of large rooms, with a low +partition, near the corridor, over which it is impossible for anyone to +see them. There they are kept for a while until the inspector is ready +to take the charge. Presently they are ushered into the charge-room, a +big apartment with a tall desk in the centre, and a substantial steel +structure a few paces away--the dock. But the dock is not used nowadays +except when a person is violent. + +The first charge is that of begging, the accused being a boy who looks +17, but says he is 13. The policeman who arrested him stands by his +side, and a reserve man stands at attention a little distance away. The +boy is quite at ease. There is little of the terror of the law here. He +admits that he was begging, his father is on strike, and he hadn't done +well at selling papers. + +"Don't be frightened, my lad," says the inspector kindly. "What's your +name? Where do you live?" + +The boy hesitates, but at last gives an address. + +"He gave me a different address, Sir," says the constable, and the boy +hurriedly protests that he has told the truth now. + +"H'm," comments the inspector calmly. "Look here, sonny, you don't want +to stay here all night. You'll have to, you know, if we can't find your +father. Tell us the truth." + +The facts elicited, the boy is searched, the main contents of his pocket +are a handful of coppers and a cigarette end. + +The inspector picks up the latter. "Do you know it's against the law for +a boy of 13 to have cigarettes? All right. Put him in the detention-room +until his father comes. You'll be charged with begging, my boy." + +In an hour the youth is free, his father having entered into +recognisances for his due appearance at the police court. + +It should be explained that no person is detained at the police station, +except on a serious charge, who can prove his identity. Often no further +inquiry is necessary than reference to a directory. + +The detention-room, too, which is attached to every police station is +intended to spare a respectable person the ignominy of the cells. It is +a comfortably furnished room, with tables and chairs, and sometimes with +a few papers and magazines. + +The charges begin to multiply towards midnight. There are several +beggars, one of whom is a dirty, round-shouldered old ragamuffin with a +long, matted beard. He cringes in front of the inspector's desk, and +suddenly his hand flickers upwards with a deft movement. The next +instant he is looking as innocent as though butter would not melt in his +mouth. + +There is a sharp "Put that down" from the reserve man, and it is +discovered that a cigarette end taken from the boy has found its way to +his pocket. He curses the keen-eyed officer as he is led away to the +cells. + +Then there are the "drunks," some quiet, some riotous, some still in a +torpor, others defiantly asserting that they are perfectly sober. Some +of these latter are seen by the police-divisional-surgeon, who by now is +in the station. The Inspector sifts each case thoroughly, making sure +that there is a _prima facie_ case before allowing the charge to +proceed. It is at his discretion to grant or refuse bail. + +It is after one o'clock. A girl is brought in by a constable, pale and +sullen, and with dark eyes a little apprehensive, a little triumphant. +The officer handles a man's jacket carefully. The whole of one sleeve +and one side of the coat is wringing wet--but it is with blood, not with +water. It is a more serious case this--one of attempted murder, which +later developed into one of murder. There was an altercation with a man, +a lover who had abandoned her, and she stabbed him with a pocket knife, +and waited without attempting to escape. An unsavoury, sordid drama, but +it is treated in the same cool, business-like way as the other trivial +charges. + +"I only meant to hurt him," says the girl, and she is led away by the +matron. I may as well finish the story here. The man she had stabbed +died in hospital, and she was charged with murder. Eventually she was +found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment. + +In the intervals of taking charges, there are other things to be done. +There is a woman half hysterical because her daughter is missing. A +couple of people walk in to hand over a gold match box and a purse found +in the streets. These things have to be entered in official documents +for prompt communication to headquarters. + +The tape machine rattles out a report of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth +disease in Surrey, and fresh orders relative to the passage of cattle +through London. This will have to be made known to the reliefs when they +go out. + +A constable hurries in with the report that a window in a certain big +business firm's premises is open. A man has been left to guard it. + +The inspector is a little impatient. "They're always leaving windows +open," he says, and gives a few instructions. Half a dozen men are sent +out to surround the place, while a search is made for possible burglars. +Of course, there are none. The window has been left open by a careless +clerk, which was what the police knew all along, but they could take no +risks. + +Several of the cells are occupied now. There are about a dozen of them +all told. You pass through a locked door from the charge-room into a +wide, stone-flagged corridor, lined on each side with massive doors. +Swing back one of these doors, and you will enter a high pitched room +with a barred window at the farther end, and a broad plank running down +one side, the full length of the cell. This serves either as a seat or a +bed. Washable mattresses and pillows are served out at night-time, and I +can imagine that, if lonely, the cells are not uncomfortable. The doors +lock automatically as they are swung to. There is an electric bell in +each cell which communicates directly with the inspector's room. Thus +the senior officers are made responsible for sending to answer a +prisoner's ring. + +Besides these cells there are a couple of large apartments--technically +also cells--where a large number of prisoners may be kept together. They +are often useful when suffrage demonstrators are on the warpath, or +when, say, a gambling raid has taken place. These, like the other cells, +have what their most frequent occupants call "Judas holes"--a small +trapdoor which can be let down from outside to see that all is well +within. + +The matron's room also opens into the corridor--a pleasant little +chamber where often women prisoners who cannot be allowed bail, but whom +it is felt should not be placed in a cell, are allowed to sit. + +I have said that all the prisoners are searched. This is done thoroughly +with a twofold object--to ensure that no prisoner has means of doing +himself bodily harm, and to discover whether he carries on him anything +bearing on the charge, as, for instance, in a case of picking pockets. +Everything discovered has to be entered with particularity; but although +such things as matches or a knife might be taken from a man, he would +usually be left with his own personal property, watch, keys, +pocket-book, money, and similar things. + +Every person having business at a police station is treated with +courtesy, whether prisoner or prosecutor. That is one of the rigid rules +of the service which is rarely neglected. Even the man on duty at the +door is not allowed to ask a caller his business without permission. +That is for a senior officer. + +I was much struck by the fair and impartial manner in which the +inspector elicited the facts of a case before accepting a charge. Always +polite, with no leaning to one side or the other, he endeavoured by +careful questioning to elicit whether an arrest had been made on +reasonable grounds. There was no bullying, no taking it for granted, +except in an obvious case of drunkenness, that a charge was proved. + +I have, perhaps, not made clear the distinction between reserve men at a +station and reserve men in a division. The latter do ordinary duties, +and are the first called upon in the event of emergencies anywhere in +London. They receive a small sum in addition to their ordinary pay. The +former are men who, instead of doing eight hours' duty in the street, do +it at the station itself, and are available for any sudden contingency +that may present itself within the subdivision. + +The personnel of the London police is, as I have indicated, selected and +tested under the most rigorous conditions. No less relentless in the +search for efficiency are the promotion conditions. The Commissioner is +an absolute autocrat so far as promotion is concerned, though, in +practice, he usually acts upon the recommendation of the +superintendents. + +A constable, before he is promoted, must serve at least five years--in +practice, the average is eight years--and must then pass two +examinations. One of these is set by the Civil Service Commissioners to +test his education, the other is an examination in police duty before a +board of high officials. Should he be approved then for promotion he is +immediately transferred to another division. These examinations are +carried out at every step in promotion. In the words of a keen American +observer: + +"That such a system is successful in bringing to the front the best men +available, that it is carried through without favouritism or political +considerations, that, in its fairness and justice, it has the confidence +of the uniformed force is a splendid commentary not only on the +integrity of the Commissioner and his administrative assistants but on +the stability and sound traditions of the entire department." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE RIDDLE DEPARTMENT. + + +The perpetual solving of riddles is one of the commonplace duties of +Scotland Yard, not only in the C.I.D., but in every branch of the +business. Luck may, and sometimes does, help a detective to solve a +mystery; but luck never helps to quell a riot or maintain order on the +King's highway in times of stress. + +It is for such matters as these that they keep a Riddle Department at +headquarters. They call it the Executive Department, but no matter--as +Mark Twain would say. It is there to supply the answers to the +conundrums that are always cropping up in police work. + +Everyone in the Metropolitan Police who wants to know anything goes to +the Executive Department. And it does a heavy work by the sheer light of +common-sense and a meticulous organisation which is ready for anything, +for many of its riddles are simply variations of the great one: + +"Here are twenty thousand men who must eat and sleep and guard seven +hundred square miles and seven millions of people; how can we +concentrate a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand swiftly into a +particular district to meet an emergency without leaving other places +unguarded?" + +An unthankful task. I can imagine that at times subdued but bitter +revilings are heaped upon the head of the department. + +You cannot take men from the comparatively pleasant surroundings of the +West End and dump them into Dockland, for instance, without evoking +grumbles. Naturally, every division which is drawn upon thinks it ought +to have been some other division. But discipline and tact do great +things. + +Rarely is there any cause for complaint, although the known fact that +the force is undermanned naturally entails hardships on individuals at +times. + +Now let me introduce you to the Riddle Department at work. In the +telegraph-room of Scotland Yard one of a cluster of tape machines breaks +into hysterical chatter, and a constable springs to read the message of +the unreeling coil of paper. It is a message from the East End. A riot +has occurred which the local superintendent fears may become greater +than the force at his disposal will be able to cope with. + +The constable dashes into an adjacent room with the message, and the +superintendent of the department takes in its import at a glance. + +He picks up a typewritten table, and his finger glides to a particular +spot. That table tells him how many men a 5, 10, or 20 per cent. draft +from neighbouring divisions will give. + +In another minute he is in consultation with Sir Frederick Wodehouse, +the Assistant Commissioner who controls the department, and possibly +with Sir Edward Henry himself. All three are men used to unhesitating +decisions, and with an intimate knowledge of the force. + +A few sharp words and the private wires again begin to get busy. Almost +immediately the reserves from the neighbouring divisions commence to +mobilise, and are poured into the disturbed area as swiftly as means of +communication allow. It is a riddle solved with quiet precision, and no +district is bereft of adequate guardianship. One of the exigencies of +the business has been met. + +If the public ever thought about such a feat at all, they would consider +it as something of a miracle. But it is not as spectacular as the +catching of a criminal, and the only persons who call indirect attention +to it are those who would have us believe that great, hulking policemen +have batoned helpless men and women who were, of course, doing nothing, +although broken bottles and stones may litter the thoroughfare where an +affray has taken place. + +It is curious this suspicion of the police which sometimes affects +otherwise clear-headed people. You pick out men whose character is +without flaw from their childhood upwards. You put them into a blue +uniform, and lo! their whole personality alters. They are hypocrites and +bullies, bribed by bookmakers and prostitutes, and capable of any sort +of baseness. + +Let us return to the Riddle Department. The secret of dealing with such +a happening as I have painted above lies naturally in the organisation. +Every division has a certain number of reserve men--approximately 10 per +cent. + +They are picked veterans of not less than eight years' service, who +receive an additional eighteenpence per week, and must always be ready +to carry out special work when called upon. These, then, are first +called out, and other men are taken as occasion demands. + +There are other branches of the Metropolitan Police where a mistake +would make havoc in a department or division; here it would affect the +service as a whole. + +The Executive Department is as much concerned in the work of every other +part of that complex machine as the engineers of a great ship are in +keeping the vessel moving. Sir Frederick Wodehouse, who is at its head, +in his quarter of a century's service as police administrator--twelve of +which have been spent with the City Police and the remainder at Scotland +Yard--has always been keenly alive to the necessity of keeping pace with +the science of organisation. He has as his right-hand men +Superintendents West and White, who split up the work between them--one +in charge of the Executive Department itself, the other supervising the +Statistical Department. + +It will be understood why I call it a Riddle Department when I explain +some of its duties. It is concerned with the discipline and +administration of the force as a whole; the organisation of men when +they have to be used in mass; it controls the public and private +telephone and telegraph service of the force; it compiles statistics on +all sorts of police subjects: it edits and issues "Informations," "The +Inebriates' List," "The Cycle List," "The Pawnbrokers' List," reward +bills, and police notices; it makes traffic regulations; it works with +the Board of Agriculture when cattle disease breaks out; it issues +pedlars' and sweeps' certificates; it keeps a gruesome record--a sort of +photographic morgue--of all dead bodies found in London; and it has to +give its consent before any summons may be taken out by a police +officer. + +That is the merest inadequate list of its duties. While other +departments are clean-cut, knowing where their work begins and ends, the +Executive Department has no limit. + +Anything that does not properly belong anywhere else goes to the +Executive Department. That is why it specialises in solving riddles. + +It is in such a department as this that alertness of mind and elasticity +of resource are developed. When war broke out, it had to spend many +sleepless days and nights in what was practically a redisposition of the +force. Hundreds of the force had enlisted, and innumerable new duties +and problems arose. A system of co-ordination between the immense new +bodies of special constables and the regular force had to be evolved. +Depleted divisions had to be readjusted, men selected for particular +work, a system of co-ordination with the Special Constabulary made, and +a hundred re-arrangements made. + +So, when a great procession takes place, as at the Coronation +festivities, the most meticulous organisation is necessary. It seems +simple to order so many men to arrange themselves at so many paces apart +over a certain number of miles. But the problem is much more complex. + +First it has to be decided where the men are to come from. Then they +have to be disposed strategically so that no man shall be wasted where +he is not needed; there have to be reserves ready at hand for +emergencies; it has to be decided what streets shall be closed and +when, what streets shall remain open; how a vast number of men shall +obtain food and rest, and so on. + +All this without offending an eager populace, thronging the streets +night and day, and without exposing outer London to the risk of +marauders when its guardians are enormously diminished in numbers. + +We all know that it has been done, and how cheerfully every man in the +force, from constable to Commissioner, give up leisure and comfort to +carry out the demands made upon them. + +But of the long, long planning and scheming we know little. The working +out of draft schemes; the hours spent in conference with superintendents +of divisions; the poring over maps and sectional plans--of this +unceasing labour we never heard, although we accepted its result almost +without comment. + +Such work as this goes on whenever there is likely to be a gathering +anywhere in London, be it a boat-race or a Suffragette procession. + +A point that is always borne in mind, and which is emphasised in the +"Police Code," is that "traffic should never be closed until the last +moment consistent with public safety, and be re-opened as soon as +possible." Something of the same process goes on when there is a +likelihood of riot and disorder, but in some contingencies it is often +necessary to act immediately, as I have already pointed out. +Nevertheless, in a district where it is known that disorder may break +out the police are usually reinforced beforehand. + +The department is responsible for the communications of Scotland Yard. +The telegraphs and telephones are continually at work night and day. +With a few exceptions, every station is linked by wire to headquarters. +Tape machines record every outgoing and incoming message so that a +message is clear and unmistakable. One operator at work at Scotland Yard +can send a message simultaneously to every main station. There is a +private telephone system by which stations can talk with stations and +headquarters without delay, and without fear of secrets being "tapped," +and the public system is also used. + +It is not so very long ago that the only wire communication was by an +antiquated A.B.C. instrument which worked laboriously and slowly, and +such a thing as a telephone was undreamed of. + +Then it was a matter of much formality and sometimes intolerable +slowness for a provincial force to get in touch on a matter of urgency. +Now it is merely a question of a trunk call. + +This naturally brings me to a consideration of Scotland Yard in a new +and little-known light--as a newspaper office. For daily, weekly, and +evening papers are issued from the big, red-brick building. Some of them +are issued by the Criminal Record Office, some by the Executive +Department. It will be convenient, however, to deal with them in a mass. + +They are papers sometimes much more interesting and informative than +those to be procured on the bookstalls, but much gold could not buy one +for a private person. + +Best known of all, perhaps, is the _Police Gazette_, a four-page sheet +published on Tuesdays and Fridays, and issued broadcast over the +kingdom. Its correspondents are police officials everywhere. It +publishes photographs occasionally, usually official ones taken in +profile and side-face. It deals with what the newspapers call +"sensations" unsensationally, and its editor is free from that bugbear +of most editors--the fear of a libel action. + +The Tuesday edition deals almost entirely with deserters from the Navy +and Army, while Friday's issue is concerned with bigger fry--criminals +and crime. It is an interesting paper with an extensive circulation, and +is, perhaps, more carefully read by those into whose hands it falls than +any other publication, however fascinating. + +The official title of what may be called the evening paper is _Printed +Informations_. This is a sheet about foolscap size, and its publication +is confined to the Metropolitan Police. It is printed four times a day, +except on Sundays when it is issued twice, and distributed by brisk +little motor cars among the various stations. Some idea of its contents +may be gathered from the headings: "Wanted for Crime," "In Custody for +Crime," "Property Stolen," "Property Lost or Stolen," "Persons or Bodies +Found," "Persons Missing," "Animals Lost or Stolen." + +Apart from these papers, which are purely confidential, there are other +papers issued. There is the "Black List" issued to publicans, with +portraits and descriptions of persons to whom it is an offence to supply +liquor, and the "Pawnbrokers' List and Cycle List," which has to be sent +to those persons to whom stolen property might be offered for pledge or +sale. These latter are distributed from each station by hand. + +It is at the Statistical Department that many of the riddles are fired. +It has the record of each man in its files, knows his official +character, his medical history, and so on. + +Now and again some one wants to know how many street accidents occurred +in London during a particular week. The department produces a carefully +prepared table showing the number and details in each case. + +Figures may be unattractive things, yet at any moment the statistics +collected in that quiet, methodical office may have a direct effect on +any one of London's teeming millions. + +When the order went forth that all cyclists in London should carry rear +lights it was probably a string of figures put together in that +department which was responsible--figures which showed the number of +accidents that had been caused in the absence of any such precaution. + +It keeps track of everything done by the police, individually and +collectively. Ask how many charges were preferred by the police in one +year. You will learn at once that there were 133,000, that 26,000 +summonses were issued by police officers, and 63,000 were served on +behalf of private persons. + +There are about three hundred mounted police in the force, and these, as +a whole, come under the control of the department, although at ordinary +times they are attached to divisions. + +They used to be attached to the outer divisions, but it was found that +they were too far away when an emergency arose, for, after all, the +mounted man is of most use in controlling unruly crowds. So now they are +with the inner divisions, within easy reach of the most crowded +thoroughfares when needed. + +All the men in this branch of the service have been thoroughly trained +in horsemanship, and those who have seen them at work on their adroit +horses, keeping back a mass of pushing, struggling people, or +dexterously dispersing a threatening crowd, know their worth as +maintainers of order. + +Both the Executive and Statistical Departments are concerned with +reports which are the basis of all discipline and organisation in the +Metropolitan Police. The first--"The Morning Report"--is compiled by the +superintendents of divisions, and passed and commented upon by the Chief +Constables in charge of districts. + +This is London's bill of criminal health. It shows what has happened +beyond the ordinary over seven hundred square miles in the preceding +twenty-four hours. A murder, a riot, a robbery, a fire, a street +collision--all things are recorded. Every police station, it should be +said, keeps an "Occurrence Book" and it is from this that the reports +are compiled. + +Then there is the "Morning Report of Crime." This is largely the work of +the divisional detective-inspectors. Every crime for which a person can +be indicted is included here, and an elaborate report of the steps that +have been taken. Comments are made upon this by both the Chief Constable +of the district and the Assistant-Commissioner of the +C.I.D.--commendations, reprimands, suggestions. + +The third report is the "Morning State," which deals with matters of +internal administration of the force itself--numbers available, +disciplinary matters, affairs of health. + +All these reports ultimately reach the departments for record and for +the transmission of orders. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE SAILOR POLICE. + + +Fantastic reflections dappled the Pool of London--reflections from the +riding lights of ships at anchor, and the brighter glare of the lamps of +the bridges. They danced eerily on the swift-running waters of the +river, intensifying the gloom of the black waters. Here and there the +darker blur marked where a line of barges was moored. + +The police-boat, its motor chug-chugging noisily, slipped +unostentatiously behind one of the tiers of lighters. To my untrained +eyes it was incredible that in the labyrinth of craft, amid the +darkness, we should be able to pick our way. Yet deftly, unerringly, the +inspector moved the tiller, while two constables kept keen eyes on the +motley assembly of vessels. + +A barge was swinging across the stream with two men at the sweeps. The +tide caught it, and it dropped heavily down on us while we were trying +to steal a passage athwart another vessel. The launch was caught between +the two, and it seemed inevitable that our boat should crack like an +egg-shell. With my heart in my mouth, I prepared to jump. But with swift +precision the constables acted. Holding tight to the gunwale they forced +our boat over sideways, and we sidled through at an angle of forty-five +degrees into open water. + +I looked for an expression of relief, but the men had calmly resumed +their seats. The escape had been a matter of course to them, and they +laughed when I spoke of it as an escape. For the men of the Thames +Police take things as philosophically as sailors. It was all in the +day's work to them. + +Since then I have seen much of the men and methods of the force which +guards the great highway of London. They have heavy duties to perform, +and, from the rank and file to the superintendent, are adequately fitted +for their work. The histories of some of those who wear the blue jacket +with the word "Thames" on the collar, and the peaked cap with the anchor +badge, would make enthralling reading. + +There is Divisional Detective-Inspector Helden, who probably knows more +of the ways of the waterside thieves than any man living. He is a +linguist, as are many of his staff--a qualification much necessary in +dealing with the cosmopolitan crews of ships plying to and from the Port +of London. + +There is an inspector who has saved three lives--a fact none the less +noteworthy in that he holds the quaint superstition that all the +troubles of those people will accumulate on his own unfortunate head. +There is a bronzed, brown-moustached station-sergeant who had been +around the world before he was twelve, and who has had strange +adventures in every quarter of the globe. There are men drawn from the +Navy--and now serving again--the mercantile marine, and river craft. + +All have an intimate knowledge of that thirty-five mile stretch of river +which passes through London from Teddington to Dartford Creek. + +They know every eddy, every trick and twist of the tide; they know on +any given day what boats are on the river, be they barges or liners; and +they know the men who work them. + +The force is under the control of Superintendent Mann, who has had a +varied experience of many years, and has brought a ripe knowledge of men +and organisation to his work. + +There are five stations--at Wapping, Waterloo Pier, Barnes, Blackwall, +and Erith--with a complement of 240 men, fourteen launches and motor +boats, as well as row-boats. The division possesses its own engineers +and carpenters, and does its own building and repairs. + +Now-a-days, men are only drafted to the division after serving for a +time in the ordinary land force, but the rule has only been in force of +late years, and consequently most of the men have spent their whole +police career on the river. + +A different thing this to land work. In the whole thirty-five miles +there are only five "sections." These are patrolled by series of boats +putting off at different hours. For eight hours they ply to and fro, +keenly vigilant, courteous as their colleagues in the West End, as +helpful and resourceful in an emergency as men of the Navy. Sometimes a +barge gets adrift. It has to be boarded and towed to safe moorings. + +Some of these barges have valuable cargoes--tobacco, silk, and what +not--and the incredible carelessness of the owners in not always +providing a watchman presses hardly on the police, who may, perhaps, +have to spend a whole night in looking after some single craft. There +was a case in which a barge broke adrift with L20,000 worth of goods +aboard. + +"Oh, that would have been all right," said the owner off-handedly, when +told that it had been safely looked after. "It would have come to no +harm." + +Not a word of thanks. And that attitude is a typical one. + +The patrol-boats beat to and fro, each with two men and a sergeant, in +all weathers, amid blinding sleet and snow in the winter, fog in +November, and more pleasantly on summer nights. Eyes are strained +through the darkness at the long tiers of barges, ears are alert to +catch the click of oars in rowlocks. They know who has lawful occasion +to be abroad at such times. + +Occasionally the sergeant hails some boat. He can usually identify the +voice of the man who replies, but should he fail to do so, the +police-boat slips nearer. A stranger or a suspicious character is +invited to give an account of himself. Should he not be able to do so +satisfactorily, he is towed along to the nearest police station until +inquiries have been made. + +Sometimes, not often, when a man, who on the river corresponds to the +sneak thief ashore, is caught red-handed stealing rope or metal or +ships' oddments there is resistance. But always the police win. They +know the game. A hand-to-hand struggle in a swaying boat, even a fall +overboard with a desperate prisoner, does not concern them greatly. + +"You see," explained a veteran to me, "if you fall out while you've got +hold of a man it's ten to one that he tries to get his breath as he goes +under. That makes matters worse for him. All you do is to hold your +breath, and let him wear himself out. He's usually quiet enough when you +come up again." Of course, every man in the division is an expert +swimmer. + +There are other tricks of boatcraft in such a case which all +river-police officers know. The flashing of a light is an equivalent of +a police-whistle ashore, and will bring the assistance of any +police-boat in sight. + +At the floating police-station at Waterloo Pier a dingey is always in +readiness to put off to rescue would-be suicides who fling themselves +from the "bridge of sighs." In the little station itself there is a +bathroom with hot water always ready, and every man in the division is +trained to the Schafer method of resuscitation of the apparently +drowned. + +A still more grim side of the work is the finding of dead bodies. The +average number is somewhere around a hundred a year. Most of these are +suicides, a few accidents. + +The duties of the patrols are to keep vigil over the river and its +banks. There are other patrols at work for the Customs and the Port of +London Authority, who see that the revenue is not defrauded, and that +the traffic regulations are kept. But this does not free the police from +all responsibility in these matters. Here are a few of the things they +have to do:-- + + + Secure drifting barges and inform owner, + + Detect smuggling, illegal ship-building or illegal fitting out for + service in a foreign State, + + Report damaged cargoes or food, and offences against the Port of + London Authority's bye-laws, + + Arrest any drunken person navigating a boat, + + Detect cases of navigation without sufficient free-board below + Battersea Bridge, + + Search all suspicious-looking craft, + + Inform harbour-master of vessel sunk or dangerous wreckage adrift, + + Report wrecks to Lloyd's. + + +There is more--much more. For instance, all manner of craft have to be +watched to see that they do not carry more passengers than their licence +permits, that obstruction is not caused by mooring across public stairs, +that more than the fixed fare is not demanded by watermen, that no boat +is navigated for hire without a licence, and so on. + +Detective-Inspector Helden and his staff of the Criminal Investigation +Department of the division are the most dreaded enemies of the river +thieves. Time was, when the "light-horsemen" of the river were in their +heyday, that L25,000 worth of property was stolen annually. That has +been reduced to less than a couple of hundred pounds--a comparatively +trivial, insignificant figure. + +It is to both branches of the river police that those who use the river +owe this complete immunity from theft. Every man of the C.I.D. in the +division has a complete knowledge of thieves and receivers on whom it is +necessary to maintain constant surveillance. Marine store dealers and +old metal dealers are kept in close touch, for it is to them that the +odds and ends of ship equipment might be taken by a dishonest sailor or +watchman. + +One of the most famous of river thieves was a man whom the public knew +as "Slippery Jack." He made a rich harvest until he was laid by the +heels. Almost naked, and his skin greased lavishly, he would slip aboard +likely-looking craft in search of plunder. If he were disturbed, he +would dodge away, his greased skin aiding him if anyone attempted to +seize him. He was tracked down one evening to Blackfriars, where he +backed his boat into midstream and turned at bay with a vicious +sheath-knife. Only after a fierce struggle, in which the police did not +escape scot free, was he arrested. His exploits cost him ten years' +penal servitude. + +It was the detective branch of the Thames Police that solved the +complicated mystery of a supposed case of murder which attracted much +public attention at the time. The full facts have never been made +public, and may be interesting. + +In August, 1897, the body of a naked man was found floating near the +Tower Bridge. A line was woven tightly round the body, arms and neck, +and a doctor stated that the body must have been in the water about +three weeks, that death was due to strangulation, and that he thought it +impossible for the man to have tied the rope round himself, though it +must have been tied before death. + +A woman identified the body as that of her husband, Von Veltheim--he who +shot Woolf Joel in Johannesburg and was later sentenced at the Old +Bailey for the blackmail of Mr. Solly Joel--and a jury brought in a +verdict that "death was caused by strangulation whether amounting to +murder the evidence fails to show." + +Here were all the elements of the mystery that might have puzzled +Sherlock Holmes. The detectives began to puzzle it out. They were all +watermen, and knew, what the doctor had apparently overlooked, that a +body will often swell after prolonged immersion in water. Although the +rope was woven tightly about the body there was only one actual knot. +They came to a directly opposite conclusion to the doctor--that the rope +had somehow enwound itself round the man after he was in the water, and +that the swelling of the body had tightened it. They began to make +enquiries. Soon they discovered that a seamen named John Duncan had +vanished from the ship _Thames_, moored at Carron Wharf, near Tower +Bridge. Also a piece of "throw line" similar to that twisted round the +body was missing. Also that Duncan, the last time he was seen alive, had +declared his intention of taking a bathe. These facts made it easy for +the sailor police to reconstruct the tragedy. + +Duncan was unable to swim. He attached one end of the rope round his +chest and fastened the other end to the ship. Then he had slipped +overboard among the piles of the wharf. By some means the end of the +rope in the ship became detached. Duncan struggled to save himself and +the rope became entangled about him. That was the solution of what +seemed a baffling problem. + +The men of the division receive the same pay as men ashore, but they are +a class entirely apart. On land, men are transferred from division to +division as they are promoted, or as occasion demands. On the river this +system does not apply in practice. Most of the men spend their whole +police career on the water, for it takes so long to make the complete +police officer of the Thames Division, and a man once trained is too +valuable to be used for other work. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE BLACK MUSEUM. + + +Outside Scotland Yard they call it the "Black Museum"; within, it is +simply the "Museum"--a private museum the like of which exists nowhere +else in the world. Money cannot purchase access to it, and curious +visitors are only admitted on orders signed by senior executive +officials who know them personally. For the museum contains too many of +the secrets of crime to be a wholesome place for the general public, +although the indiscriminate publicity that it has suffered in print has +made it appear to be a kind of gratuitous show-place. If that were its +only purpose, it would not exist at Scotland Yard. + +It was originally established, some forty years ago, in a cellar of Old +Scotland Yard, as a place where young police officers might get an +elementary acquaintance of the ways and appliances of evil-doers. + +Gradually relics of great crimes began to accumulate there until there +are now over six hundred exhibits, ranging over the whole gamut of +criminal activity. There is much, perhaps too much, to appeal to the +morbid-minded--revolvers by the score, wicked-looking blood-stained +knives, hangmen's ropes, plaster casts of murderers taken after death; +but more interesting are the tools and equipment of the professional +thief and swindler, by which demonstrations are made to raw policemen +of the weapons with which his adversaries wage their war upon society. + +In one case it is an innocent-looking ring, now palpably tarnished +brass. But examine it, and you will find that it bears a tolerable +imitation of an eighteen-carat hall-mark. When it was fine and bright it +was picked up in the street, very ostentatiously, by an astute gentleman +who promptly sold it for as much as he could get from a passer-by, who +had probably thought it a bargain when he noticed the forged hall-mark. +That same trick flourishes to-day, as it flourished over a century ago +when Sir John Fielding issued a warning to the public. + +Close by are a little heap of white sapphires, calculated at one time, +with their glitter and dazzle when set as "diamond" rings, to deceive +all but the most sophisticated of pawnbrokers. Similarly so, +"field-glasses" stamped with the names of famous makers. These are +little things, perhaps, but they give the most trusting of young +constables some ideas of "ways that are dark and tricks that are vain." + +Publicans and pawnbrokers seem to be the invariable victims of a certain +type of swindler. There is a walking-stick, innocent enough to all +appearance, but with a tong-like attachment which, at the touch of a +spring, will jump out of the ferrule, enabling a wineglass full of coins +to be lifted from a shelf across the counter. + +A glazed black bag with hinged bottom, which may be placed over any +article and automatically swallow it is another ingenious invention. + +All these, however, are byways of crime. There is much more to be +absorbed by the learner in police science. Here he is shown the +different types of jemmies, and bars of steel so fashioned that they may +be used as chisels or levers. Here are bunches of skeleton keys which, +in the hands of experts, will open any ordinary lock in the world. A +massive steel implement shaped like a gigantic tin-opener, and used to +rip open the backs of safes, is another item in the collection. There +are vice-like tweezers which, when properly screwed up, will cut quietly +through the bolts of, say, a jeweller's shutters. + +Still more scientific is a complicated apparatus with tubes in which +oxygen and acetylene gas are used to melt through safes with a fierce +heat--a quieter, less clumsy, and more effective method than the use of +explosives. + +It would take more space than is at my command to detail all the +practical instruction which is afforded by the object lessons the young +constable has in the museum. Not only is he initiated into wrinkles and +tricks which he may meet any day, but he is shown into those more subtle +branches of crime which few but specialists enter. + +Coining is a case in point. There is a complete coiner's outfit--which, +for obvious reasons, I shall not describe--and the process is explained +from A to Z. Now-a-days the "smasher" is a difficult individual to +circumvent. He works preferably with real silver, and with coins like +sixpences and shillings which are not so closely scrutinised as those of +higher denominations. Of course, even in a genuine sixpence the silver +is not worth its face value. + +A step higher in the criminal hierarchy is the forger. Of his +handicraft, specimens are not lacking. There are relics seized when a +notorious forger went into forced seclusion for ten years some time ago. +He manufactured Bank of France thousand-franc notes and foreign bonds, +and even used lithographic stones to imitate the water-mark. Photography +played an important part in his operations. + +I have shown, sketchily perhaps, how the primary function of the museum +is carried out. But it has another and allied interest of great +importance to all interested in police science. + +One may study the stages by which the professional criminal has adapted +the work of invention to his ends, and mark at the same time how the +swindler always strikes the same old chord of credulity in human nature. + +Dropped in one of the corners is a heavy bar of brass, originally in the +possession of an early gold-brick swindler. Mr. Albert Blair Hunter, of +Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A., communicated with two gentlemen in this +country, stating that a wealthy relative had died possessed of +considerable property, among which was a box of gold from Klondike, +value L12,000. For various plausible reasons he was willing to dispose +of it to them for L2,000. The good, simple-minded souls went to New +York, and handed solid English money to that amount over to Mr. Albert +Blair Hunter, of Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A. For what? A bar of brass +worth perhaps twenty shillings sterling. + +Gambling swindles are numerous, seized for the most part on +race-courses. A little tee-to-tum, marked with dice faces, can be +manipulated so as to fall high or low, according to the betting, +irrespective of the person who holds it, so long as he does not know the +secret. There is a board with a dial face and a pointer on a print. The +luckless "punters" cannot tell that it is controlled by a magnetic ring. +Into these mysteries the police are initiated. + +The policy of education at the museum is a wise one, for many young +constables, whatever their natural abilities, come fresh to London from +the plough, and no more reliable method of destroying a too trustful +faith in appearances could have been devised than this which shows them +the actual equipment of criminals. + +I have deliberately avoided giving too close a description of these +things. Nor have I in any way given a complete description of the +museum. + +The mere manuscript catalogue occupies two portly volumes. Each of the +relics contains a story in itself,--a story that has often ended in a +shameful death. To recall them would be beyond the scope of this book. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +PUBLIC CARRIAGES. + + +"Keep very still, please. Thank you." + +A constable replaced the cap on the lens of a big camera, and with a +sigh of relief a man rose from the chair where he had been seated under +a cardboard number. It was the photograph-room of Scotland Yard, through +which every cab-, omnibus-, and tram-driver, and every conductor has to +pass once in three years. "The Yard" is as careful with a cabman on +licence as with a convict on licence, although for different reasons. +But the chief idea is the same--the safety and comfort of the public. + +There are thousands of dossiers stored in the vaults, which give a +complete history of each man holding a licence in connection with a +public vehicle--records of warnings, convictions, medical tests, and so +on. Officially stamped photographs are placed on every document which +passes into a man's possession, so that there can never be cases of +personation, such as I believe have happened many years ago. + +It is no mean work that is performed by the Public Carriage Department, +although it is done quietly, smoothly, and for the most part out of +sight of the public. Not a cab, omnibus, or tramway car that plies for +hire in the metropolis--and they average about 16,000 a year--but has +passed stringent tests by experts, and this applies equally to the men +in charge. + +Every human precaution that years of experience can suggest is taken to +guard against the passing on the streets of any man or vehicle that +might be a nuisance or a danger in congested traffic. Rigid regulations, +numbering forty in the case of taxicabs, and sixty-two in the case of +motor omnibuses, insist upon details as far apart as adequate brakes and +freedom from noise. + +We speak about the perils of the street; but they would be increased, +perhaps tenfold, but for the unobtrusive care of the Public Carriage +Department. + +There are other detectives at Scotland Yard than those of the Criminal +Investigation Department--detectives, that is, in all but name--for the +control and supervision of traffic does not end with the issue of an +annual licence. + +There are fifty skilled men dotted about London, all holding +certificates of proficiency in motor engineering, who exercise a +constant surveillance. Quick of eye and keen of hearing, they keep +unceasing watch on all public vehicles. An unusual sound as a motor +omnibus passes may tell them something is wrong with the engine. +Thereafter the proprietors are warned not to use the car until the +defect has been remedied. Or they may station themselves unexpectedly at +the gate of a garage, and test the brakes and steering gear of every car +that passes in or out. + +That this is no mere formality is shown by the fact that on one morning +an officer stopped no fewer than forty taxicabs from going on the +streets. Indeed, during the last year for which figures are available +officers of the department reported 35,123 vehicles as unfit for use. In +some it was merely a question of noise or a trifling fault easily +remedied. In others the trouble might easily have caused a bad accident. +The principle acted upon throughout the department is that prevention is +better than cure. + +Whenever a car of a new type is devised, be it a cab, an omnibus, or a +tramway car, Scotland Yard examines it, and, if necessary, calls in a +consulting expert for advice. + +Should the type be suitable, similar vehicles are afterwards examined by +local staffs of the department--there are twelve of these in London--and +a certificate presented by the maker that there has been no variation in +the type. + +In the early days of motor omnibuses complaints in shoals were received +by Scotland Yard from tradesmen, private individuals, borough councils, +and others as to the frightful noises made by them when running. + +That resulted in the establishment of a committee of high executive +officials for the testing of every motor omnibus in respect of noise +before it is licensed. + +Pass through Great Derby Street into New Scotland Yard any day after ten +o'clock, and you will find always a number of men clustered about a low +building and in the little square. They are drawn from all types and +classes, and all are candidates hopeful of obtaining their licences. + +A would-be taxi-driver--an "original" he is technically termed--has to +be clean in dress and person and not under five feet in height. Two +householders who have known him personally for three years must give +him a good character. A doctor is required to certify that he does not +suffer from any ailment, that he is sufficiently active, that he does +not smoke or drink excessively, and that he is fitted for his duties by +temperament. After this he will be permitted to undergo examinations in +fitness and knowledge of driving. It is a tight-meshed net through which +an incompetent would find it hard to pass. + +But it is the topographical examination that undoes most of the +"originals." I went through a couple of large waiting-rooms; hanging on +the walls of one was a slip of paper with the name of one man. "There +were twelve yesterday," said my guide; "he was the only one to get +through." + +And then he told me something of the history of the man whose name was +hanging solitary on the wall. It was not an altogether unusual one in +that building. The candidate, a University man, had been in possession +of an income of about L1,500 a year. He had been neither reckless nor +extravagant, but suddenly, at the age of forty, with no trade or +profession in his hands, he had seen his fortune lost. So he had taken +his place among the "originals" and had started in the world anew as the +driver of a taxicab. + +At the end of the waiting-room there are two little apartments, each +containing one table and a chair; there the "originals" are examined in +topography, _viva voce_, one at a time. Now, it is sometimes asserted +that trick questions are put to candidates. That is not so. There are +twenty-five lists officially laid down, each of eighteen questions, and +one of these lists the candidate has to answer. + +Here are typical routes which a candidate has to describe:-- + + + St. James's Park Railway Station to Baker Street Railway Station, + + Clapham Junction to Brixton Theatre, + + Hop Exchange to Royal Exchange. + + +The names are sometimes varied. For instance, the second might be "from +the South-Western Police Court to Lambeth Town Hall," or the third +"London Bridge Station to the Mansion House." But in each case the route +is practically the same. Thus a complaint of unfairness can be checked +by reference to the record kept by the examiner of the list he used. + +Some of the men present themselves again and again. In 1913, of 676 +"originals" only 366 passed, yet there were 6,339 separate examinations. + +Omnibus drivers and ex-horse-cab drivers do not have to pass this +topographical test. But all alike have to undergo a driving test of the +type of vehicle for which a licence is required. + +First of all, there is a preliminary examination in the yard, so that an +examiner is not called upon to risk life and limb--to say nothing of +those of the public--before he is sure that the candidate has at least a +rudimentary knowledge of driving. + +Afterwards, there is a more complete test under the difficult conditions +of the West End. Should a man fail at his first test, he is not allowed +to appear again for fourteen days; if at his second, he is put back for +a month; at his third, for two months. His failure at his fourth and +final examination is inexorable. Ex-horse-cab drivers are allowed two +extra tests. A fee of a half-crown is payable for each of the last two +tests. + +The necessity of these precautions is evident when it is considered what +harm might be done by an ignorant, careless, dishonest, or short-sighted +driver, yet I have come to the conclusion that when a cabman gets his +licence he has earned it. But the Public Carriage Department has first +of all to consider the safety of the public. + +I have tried to make clear some of the work that devolves upon the +staff. But that is by no means all. Now and again a warning has to be +issued to drivers and proprietors on some particular subject. Here is a +typical one: + + + SPECIAL NOTICE. + + "In view of the number of accidents in the streets of the + Metropolis, and of the numerous complaints of the public as to the + reckless driving of certain drivers of public vehicles, the + Commissioner of Police gives notice that every case of conviction + for dangerous and reckless driving will entail serious + consequences, and the renewal of the drivers' licences may be + imperilled. + + "Repeated convictions for exceeding the speed limit by drivers of + public vehicles will be considered to constitute evidence of + reckless driving." + + +Such hints bring home to drivers a remembrance that their livelihood +depends upon their good conduct. They never know when they may be under +surveillance, and they know that every time they transgress it is +entered in the records, which are scrutinised when an application comes +for a renewal of licence. Nearly 200 licences were cancelled or recalled +in 1913. + +There is a Committee of Appeal at Scotland Yard, to which most cases of +this kind are referred, so that no man is deprived of his licence +without a fair hearing and reasonable cause. This committee heard no +fewer than 1,648 cases during 1913. + +Some of us may recall painful memories of the early days of taxicabs, +when taximeters were not altogether above suspicion, and deft +manipulation with a hatpin or some other jugglery was possible, by which +fares and cab-owners were defrauded. + +Those days have passed. A taximeter when it has once been sealed by +Scotland Yard is now a sternly conscientious instrument, with a regard +for the truth that might shame George Washington. There is a separate +register of taximeters kept cross-indexed to cabs, so that the number of +the latter is all that is necessary to reveal the record of a particular +taximeter. + +Eight different kinds of badges are issued, varying in colour. Thus an +officer can tell at a glance who holds a conductor's licence, who has a +horse-cab licence and who a taxi-cab licence. In a few cases composite +badges are allowed, by which a man may act either as driver or +conductor, or as driver of a horse or motor vehicle. + +All men of the department are police officers, but they are something +more. They are living directories of London and its suburbs from Colney +Heath, Herts, to Todworth Heath, Surrey, from Lark Hall, Essex, to +Staines Moor, Middlesex; they are skilful engineers; they have a keen +eye for the defects and qualities of a horse; they can drive a horse or +a motor car, they know the conditions of traffic in Piccadilly Circus or +in the deserted roads about Croydon. + +Above all, and in this they are again police officers, they have a very +sure appreciation of human nature. They do not harass those with whom +they are concerned unnecessarily, but whether it is the London County +Council, a powerful omnibus corporation, or an unlucky hansom driver, +they act impartially, without fear or favour. + +Outside their own province they have nothing to do with crime, though it +sometimes happens that their records are useful to other departments of +Scotland Yard. In reality, the actual police functions of the Public +Carriage Department are few, and for this reason there are people who +hold that it should be entirely separated from the force. The argument +is a forcible one, yet it is not complete. + +Time was when all licences were issued from Somerset House. But even +then the police were asked to carry out certain enquiry work. It has +been suggested that the London County Council should take it over. But +the London County Council is not an impartial body in regard to public +carriages. It owns tramway cars which are run in opposition to motor +omnibuses. A Traffic Board for London might solve the difficulty. + +But, however plausible such theoretical reasons for separating this work +from the police may sound, one thing is certain. The duties could not be +more efficiently performed than they are at present. A perfect system +has been devised by which not only are the perils of the street +minimised for pedestrians, but the comfort and convenience of all who +travel by public vehicles are ensured, whether it be the millionaire in +a taxi, or the factory hand in a workman's tramway car. + +The Public Carriage Department has learnt its business. It has grown up +with the growth of motor traction. It knows the tricks of the trade, and +those who would throw dust in its eyes must needs be ingenious. To hand +over its duties to an outside body would result, at any rate for a time, +in something like chaos. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +LOST, STOLEN, OR STRAYED. + + +This is the legend of the lost centipede that once held undisputed sway +of the Lost Property Office at Scotland Yard before it came to an +untimely end. It arrived with a cab-driver, housed in a little tin box, +comfortably lined and pierced with air-holes. Casually an official +opened the box, caught one glimpse of its contents, and jumped for +safety while the centipede pleased at the opportunity of stretching its +multitude of legs, cantered incontinently for the shelter of a pile of +lost articles. + +But even a centipede cannot defy Scotland Yard with impunity. The forces +of the law rallied, and, headed by an intrepid inspector with a fire +shovel, eventually tracked down the insect--or should it be animal?--and +placed him under arrest. + +Trial and execution followed summarily, and the honest cab-driver went +empty away. + +The Lost Property Office is not, as is popularly supposed, a general +depository for all articles found in London. It receives only things +found in public carriages--tramway cars, omnibuses, and cabs. Other +articles are dealt with by the police in the divisions where they happen +to be found. But, even as it is, it keeps a large staff busy month in, +month out. + +In the basement of Scotland Yard there are many rooms filled with +articles varying from a navvy's pickaxe to costly jewels. Take an +example of one year's working of the department. There were 90,214 +articles deposited. Here is a rough classification of things dealt with +in one year: + + + Bags 9,340 + Men's clothing 6,749 + Women's clothing 7,942 + Jewellery 2,395 + Opera Glasses 723 + Purses 4,340 + Rugs 273 + Sticks 2,134 + Umbrellas 35,319 + Watches 451 + Miscellaneous articles 20,548 + + +Of each of these things a minute record is taken before it is stored in +one of the large rooms, with barred windows, in the basement. Umbrellas, +sticks, and bags, for instance, are classified, each under half a dozen +or more heads, and the card index with different coloured cards for +various months, enables an article to be discovered instantly. Articles +to the value of L39,859 were restored to their owners. + +Suppose you left an umbrella in a cab on June 16th, enquiry at Scotland +Yard would enable it to be picked out at once, if it had reached them. +You describe it as having a curved handle, mounted with imitation +silver. At once an official turns to the blue cards in the index. Under +"umbrellas" he turns to the subdivision W.M.C., which, being +interpreted, means "white metal crook handle," and your umbrella is +handed back to you. But you do not get it for nothing. There is a reward +to pay to the cabman. In the case of an umbrella, or such small article, +your own suggestion will be probably adopted, but on most things the +scale fixed for gold, jewellery, and bank notes applies. This is, up to +L10, 3s. in the L, and over that sum an amount to be fixed by the +Commissioner. + +The rewards paid out annually form no inconsiderable sum. Recently +figures have not been published, but an idea can be obtained from those +given a year or so ago. Then 32,238 drivers and conductors shared +between them nearly L5,000. One lucky cabman got L100; six received +between L20 and L100. + +These rewards are mostly for articles claimed, which numbered 31,338 of +the declared value of L31,560, out of 73,721. The rest, with a few +exceptions, were returned to the finders after an interval of three +months. This return to cabmen and conductors is an act of grace--not a +right. In some cases where a thing is of value, and remains unclaimed, +it is sold, and a percentage of the proceeds given to the finder. + +While I was in the office a black cat strolled leisurely out from behind +one of the crowded sacks, and rubbed itself against the knee of one of +the officials. "Left in a tram car," he explained. "We had a tortoise, +some gold fish, and a canary a few days ago, but they have been claimed. +It was suggested that we might save space by having the cat look after +the fish and the canary, but we did not think it advisable." + +Almost any kind of a shop might be stocked with the loot of the Lost +Property Office. There are false teeth, books, golf clubs, pickaxes, +snuff-boxes, and ladies' stoles, stuffed fish, and wax flowers, petrol, +and motor tyres, boots, and watch-chains, every conceivable kind of +portable property that an absent-minded person might forget. + +Each month's articles are kept separate, so that at the end of three +months unclaimed things can be dealt with. A great safe swallows up all +articles of jewellery or money of the value of L1 or more. I have seen a +cabman hand over the counter an exquisite pearl worth several hundred +pounds. It was examined, and then carefully sealed and placed in the +safe. Constant handling of these things has made the officials quick and +accurate judges of their value. + +The authorities are not content to merely look after articles until they +are claimed. Every effort is made to trace the losers, and a large +clerical staff is constantly at work sending out letters where the +property is marked or identifiable in any way, or where a cabman has +remembered the address to which he has carried the supposed losers. More +than 40,000 letters are sent out annually in such cases, and there are, +in addition, something like 50,000 written enquiries to answer in a +year. + +This alone will show something of the monstrous business with which the +officials have to deal. There is, of course, a constant stream of +enquirers at the two offices, one at each side of the great red-brick +building. One of these offices receives lost articles, the other +restores them. Intermediately there are the vast store-rooms through +which the accumulations progress every month, till in the third month +all unclaimed things are ready to hand in the "outgoing" office. + +Nothing but a well-organised system could avoid confusion, and confusion +there is none. It is all part of a great business conducted on business +principles. Every article, every farthing of money is recorded, with +the circumstances under which it found its way to the Lost Property +Office and its description, so that of the scores of thousands of things +which pass through the hands of the officials, a ready history of each +one can be quickly referred to. + +There are queer visitors sometimes--persons who make preposterous claims +for something they may have heard has been lost. These are firmly but +effectively dealt with. On the other hand, sometimes articles of value +are never claimed solely for the reason that their owners have no wish +to make known their movements or whereabouts on a particular day. + +Now and again the authorities find it necessary to remind people of the +existence of the Lost Property Office. The following advertisement is +typical of those inserted in daily newspapers periodically: + + + "METROPOLITAN POLICE.--Found in public carriages and deposited with + police during June and July, numerous articles, including a bank + note, a purse containing cash, a bracelet set stones, and a purse + containing a bank note. Application for property lost in public + carriages should be made personally, or by letter, to the Lost + Property Office, New Scotland Yard, S.W. Office hours, 10 a.m. to + 4 p.m." + + +Once every three months articles that have been unclaimed are sold by +auction. The average proceeds of these sales are about L60, which is +handed over to the Board of Inland Revenue. The Metropolitan Police +receive no benefit from the vast machinery they keep in motion to guard +the public from its own carelessness. + +I cannot do better than conclude this chapter with the advice proffered +to all those who use public vehicles: "The very great majority of +articles deposited have been left _inside_ cabs. Hirers, therefore, +might with advantage make it a rule not to pay and discharge the cab +before they are satisfied that nothing is left in the cab." + + +PRINTED BY HAMPTONS LTD., 12, 13, AND 19, CURSITOR STREET, LONDON, E.C. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Scotland Yard, by George Dilnot + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCOTLAND YARD *** + +***** This file should be named 31629.txt or 31629.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/6/2/31629/ + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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