Review: Sechzig Jahre Wiener Sicherheitswache
| Published date | 01 April 1930 |
| Date | 01 April 1930 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X3000300219 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
320 THE POLICE JOURNAL
defect of the federal police is found to be the independence of many
important
departments, which overlap; for instance, there is one unit, the account of
which is especially interesting, which deals with prohibition; it is considered
that one force ought to deal with all federal offences. As to the working of
the private police, the State of Pennsylvania is taken as an
example;
attention
is drawn particularly to the abuses of the
Iron
and Coal police, and an
enlarged force of State police is recommended.
Then
follow articles on
control and discipline, on police statistics, annual reports, and other kindred
subjects. One article deals with the policewoman. Another is entitled •
The
Police, Crime and Politics; , the writer deplores the spoils system in politics
and the lax public attitude with regard to the enforcement of law.
The
second part comprises eight articles on the problems of police
personnel. Salaries, the use of scientific tests and psychological methods in
solution, and promotion, training, and training schools, are all separately
discussed.
There
are descriptions of the English police system and the
criminological schools in Brussels and Vienna.
In the third part there are eight articles on the tools and technique of
criminal investigation. One is on identification, another on science and
criminal investigation, athird on medical science, and a fourth on psychology
in criminal investigation. Especially noticeable are the three articles on the
technique of the detective in England, America and
Germany:
the American
author calls attention to the general terrorization of witnesses: the German
advocates the taking of the finger-prints of all citizens, not only of criminals.
Throughout there is no lack of appreciation of good work done and of
improvements effected in the United States police of late
years;
but
the
views of the various contributors as a whole are pessimistic about the future.
The
general effect on the English reader
must
be one of sympathy, when he
realizes the immense difficulties of the American police and how different the
conditions are from his own country.
The
immunity of London from crime,
as compared with five cities in the United States and seven in Canada,
according to the statistics given in one table (p. 77), is startling.
The
volume will repay careful study.
SECHZIG
JAHRE
WIENER
SICHERHEITSWACHE
(The
Diamond
Jubilee of the Vienna Constabulary). By
HERR
SCHOBER.
1929. (Vienna.)
Like the London Metropolitan Police, the police of Vienna has
just
(1929)
celebrated its Diamond Jubilee.
To
mark the occasion its chief,
Herr
Schober
(who has become, for the time being, Chancellor of the Austrian Republic),
issued an illustrated history of the Police Force, containing a
number
of
historical and modern illustrations.
The
book has an interesting historical section showing
that
the first
Police Force in Vienna worthy of the name made its appearance as far back
as 1221, when various citizens were called upon to guard the gates of the town
against barbarian hordes.
In
the fourteenth century special police were
enlisted, while in 1543 guards were appointed who did
duty
at night as well
as by day. Subsequently the police changed its character according to the
particular form of government
then
in force under the monarchy, sometimes
being of a military and sometimes of a civil nature.
The
actual Force which
now controls the city of Vienna was founded in 1869. Before the war it
numbered 4,300 men,
but
now has an establishment of over 7,000. An
account of the existing organization has appeared in The Police Journal
(vol. ii. p. 437).
Herr
Schober's Jubilee
Number
is a worthy tribute to one of the
outstanding police forces in Europe.
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