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Show Lawbreakers Share Common Weaknesses Hoolums, gangsters, and racketeers, who operate with seeming seem-ing disdain for constituted authority, all share a common weakness weak-ness the morbid fear of detection, apprehension and successful prosecution. These leaders of the underworld, representing the brains and motivating force of "organized crime," cloak themselves . with respectability and circulate in all spheres of our society. However, none is immune to the subconscious dread of one day having to face the bar of justice. Law enforcement is exploitingt his weakness. By the exchange ex-change of valuable criminal intelligence information, the FBI and other federal, state and local agencies are successfully penetrating pene-trating the innermost sanctums of the criminal deity. This action, plus the new laws passed by the last session of Congress aimed at bigtime racketeers and gamblers, is creating an uneasy stir among professional vice lords. Experience has shown there is no substitute for on-the-spot dissemination of vital information on the working level. This exchange of criminal intelligence is made among regular, duly authorized law enforcement agencies whose experienced officers understand its nature and are aware of its potential. They make prompt and proper application of it. This is a far more logical and practical system than the theoretical national clearinghouse for criminal information. Yet our profession is constantly beset by those who maintain there is a "void" in the exchange of information. They contend it can only be overcome by this catalytic cure-all. Such a contention is without merit and does not deal in reality. Crime prevention requires timely, cohesive and spontaneous action. There is no margin for procrastination or administrative red tape. In a like manner, dissemination of criminal intelligence must be expeditious. Presently, it is exchanged promptly by agencies involved, and there is no delay in its reaching the proper authorities. . Daily throughout the country numerous investigations are closed and violators convicted as a direct result of this nationwide program. (Reprinted from the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin) |