Detective Organisation and Procedure the Report of the Departmental Committee (Continued from Page 344)
| Published date | 01 October 1939 |
| Date | 01 October 1939 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3901200407 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Detective Organisation and Procedure
THE
REpORT
OF THE DEPARTMENTAL
COMMITTEE
(Continued from page 344)
III
SCIENTIFIC
AIDs;
POLICE
POWERS
THE
chapter which the Detective Committee devote, in
their Report, to the subject of
the
application of science to
the investigation of crime briefly records the progress made in
this field
both
before and since
the
inception of
the
Com-
mittee's work in 1933, and indicates the plans by which further
developments can be arranged to
the
best advantage.
It
is recognised
that
the organisation of measures for
scientific aids for the Police Service
must
relate to the lay-out
of the service as it exists, and not as
the
several units which
form
the
service might have been arranged in a new organisa-
tion. Regard must obviously also be made to the distribution
and incidence of crime, related as
the
volume of crime is
to distribution of population, wealth, industry
and
other
factors.
In probably no field of police activity has progress been
so rapid during recent years, largely at
the
instigation of the
Detective Committee, as in
the
organisation of measures for
bringing to
the
aid of the detective officer the services and
skill of
the
specialist.
It
is
true
that
prior to
the
appointment
of the Detective Committee there existed in most police
districts the means for obtaining
the
advice and help of various
experts, ranging from
the
jeweller in
the
identification of
valuable articles in cases of theft, to the eminent pathologist
and the Home Office analyst in cases of homicide. Co-
ordinated plans for
the
routine employment of, or even con-
sultation with, the expert were rare, either in
the
particular
or general type of case, and no plans existed for the systematic
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426
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
instruction of the general body of police, most vital as this
need is now recognised to be, or even of detectives,
in
the
liaison necessary between police, on the one hand, and experts
on the other.
In
their conception of the scope of the work which
the
laboratory can undertake in aiding the detective in
the
investi-
gation of crime,
the
Committee, basing their reasoning on data
and advice from all the available sources, estimate
that
pro-
bably in four
per
cent. of
the
crimes reported to
the
Police
the
need may arise for laboratory examination.
Thus
the total
number of cases in which the laboratory may be expected to
function may reach, or even exceed,
10,000
a year.
The
main
branches of
the
work are summarised by
the
Committee, and
examined, under
the
following heads:
I.
The
instruction of
the
rank and file
In
the subject
generally;
2.
The
further instruction of detectives, especially
In
certain branches of police technique and scene of
crime work;
3. Laboratory work, including (a) routine examinations;
(b) specialist examinations; (c) research;
4. Work in the interests of the service as a whole which
could best be provided for by a Forensic Science
centre embodying aresearch laboratory, alibrary, a
museum of specimens of various kinds, and machinery
for the co-ordination of
the
work going on in
the
different laboratories and for disseminating informa-
tion to these laboratories and throughout
the
police
service.
INSTRUCTION OF THE
POLICE
This
important consideration is wisely separated
under
two heads.
The
first deals with the training necessary to be
given to
the
police generally, and secondly
that
to be given
to detectives. As to the first, the uniform constable,
the
man
on
the
beat, is generally the first police officer to arrive at the
scene of a crime, of whatever category, and the need is
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