Offences and Case Law
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X5002300114 |
| Published date | 01 January 1950 |
| Date | 01 January 1950 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
72
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
and indexed. Bertillon's
system
of identification from fingerprints
showed the great need for some system of recording previous convic-
tions efficiently, and
from
the massive books they went to the card
system, first in ink and then the typewriter.
It
was the custom at
first to record all convictions on cards for first offences, however
trivial.
It
is so even to this day in some Forces, and I am not sure
that
this is not the best method as it certainly saves time in the end. But
in a great many Forces the system adopted is to place the name for
the first conviction on an index card, alphabetically, with a reference
to
the
charge sheet, Multiple convictions are, of course, kept on cards
in. cabinets or cases, and should aperson with a single conviction
corne before the Court a second time, the first conviction is extracted
from the records of the charge.
The
name on the first index is deleted,
suitably in red ink, showing the transfer to the other section or death,
as the case may be.
The
name
then
goes on to the second set of index
cards which are in a different colour. Whereas this system saves
a"
tremendous amount of cards normally used for persons with single
convictions who will never again corne before the Court, it is offset
by the fact that two sets of index have to be searched.
In
some Forces
special cabinets are in use to file the cards. Shallow drawers allow
the cards to be laid nearly flat in containers which show only the
top tip of the card with the name thereon.
This
system does away
with the index as the cards themselves are the index. Against this is .
the price of the equipment and space.
We have travelled a long way from the spikes to steel cabinets,
from the days when it was nearly a crime to open the office window
for fear of blowing papers away, to the days of electrical duplicating
machines and comptometers. How little connection there seems
between the ' Bill Sikes ' of Charles Dickens to all the paper work both
inside and out of
the
Police Office of to-day, to catch the modern
stream-lined, flashy' Spiv,' who haunts society now!
The
background
of it all is ' Filing.'
Offences and Case
Law
By
ABOROUGH
CHIEF
CLERK
IV.-PUNISHMENT
OF
PERSONS
DRIVING
MOTOR
VEHICLES
WHEN
UNDER
THE
INFLUENCE
OF
DRINK
OR
DRUGS
(Continuedfrom page
3I7
of Vol.
XXII
(I949))
" Under the influence
of
drink or a drug"
There
has been considerable doubt from time to time as to
the
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