The Prevention of Crime
| Author | P. R. Staddon |
| Published date | 01 April 1946 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4601900212 |
| Date | 01 April 1946 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
THE
PREVENTION
OF
CRIME
143
use to policemen, the regional college should be able to cater for him.
If
the proposed Association could examine candidates in these subjects
and by the issue of a diploma show
that
the examinee had attained
some required, high, standard it would be a very great incentive to
men to study.
Finally, it is suggested
that
aNational Police Library would
greatly assist officers who desire to acquire text-books in advance of
the proposed general instruction book.
The
books could be supplied
on loan or could possibly be supplied on some form of hire purchase
agreement.
The
provision of such alibrary would add little to the
cost of the scheme,
but
would do much to ensure its success.
Although the foregoing ideas if adopted would cost money, it is
submitted
that
the
return to the taxpayer would be a hundredfold
in the increased contentment of ambitious officers; and it would do
much to increase that alertness and efficiency which the public
associates with the Police.
The
Prevention of Crime
By
DETECTIVE-SERGEANT
P. R.
STADDON
Luton
Borough
Police
THE prevention and detection of crime are two of the fundamental
duties of the Police, as any recruit to the Service will tell you.
It
would also be agreed
that
prevention and detection are inseparable,
and one could not detail certain officers to deal solely with the pre-
vention of crime and others to cope merely with its detection; How-
ever, it is generally understood
that
the uniformed patrol officer has
far more to do with
prevention-his
mere presence acts as a deterrent
to would-be
offenders-than
his colleague in plain clothes. Inversely
the plain clothes officer is charged in particular with
the
detection of
the crime which, broadly speaking, his uniformed counterpart has
failed to prevent.
The
efficiency of the Police Service in relation to the prevention
of crime is not known and could
not
be ascertained;
but
it will be
agreed that if
our
efficiency in detection was
100
per
cent. and remained
so,
our
prevention efficiency would at last be ascertainable and would
likewise be
100
per cent.
That
discovery and punishment were certain
would surely deter any prospective offender.
And
if we are agreed
that
my reasoning is sound, we can safely infer that our efficiency in
detection has a direct bearing on
our
efficiency in prevention.
A
study
of crime detection figures shows that approximately 90
per
cent. of detected crime is cleared up by the
C.LD.,
whose personnel
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