Salt Lake Telegram | 1931-04-17 | Page 8 | Lawlessness of Officers Being Studied

lAWlESSNESS ESS ESSOF OF OFFICERS BEING Illegal mega Acts Often Used in Enforcement Wickersham Wickersham Wickersham Wicker- Wicker sham Declares CINCINNATI April 17 ff LaW JP-LaW- Law Lawlessness among enforcement officers is being beIns studied by the WIckersham commission sion which Intends to consider con con- Elder sider this ugly uly side of or our officialdom official official- dom dorn In its Us deliberations on the American judicial s system tem Chairman Wickersham of the law la enforcement t commission rn made ade that thit statement in a speech last night be before before be- be I be-I fore th the Cincinnati regional crime committee In the Ule desperate effort cHort to compel obedience of law Wickersham said experience has shown that those charged with the high function of enforcing the thc law sometimes stoop to attain their ends by means as illegal megal as the acts they seek reek to punish or suppress It Is 15 time a study stud should be made of this phase of our civilization and that now nO in cou course e of oC preparation for our commission ion will be presented as perhaps the first or one of the first attempts to put in concrete form for forthe the nubile public consideration this LIUS 1115 ugly side the nubile public consideration this LIUS 1115 ugly side of our officialdom SILENT ON PROHIBITION He made no reference to prohibition except to say that overwhelming public interest in the topic has ob obscured obscured ob- ob cured the fact that the commission was nas charged with the duty to stu study and report on any other subject The speech was Wickersham's second sec sec- see see-I ond end public statement since the commission com corn mission lon finished its prohibition sur- sur vey CY ey Most of It was devoted to facts which WIckersham said show the need of a. a a. a thorough overhauling of our whole system of criminal Jus jus- tice Ucc No reform in I- I nal procedure has been en undertaken in the last years jears ears he said The administration of oC crIminal Justice through the UJ United States cry largely is carried on with judicial judicial judi- judi cial machinery similar to that cm cm- p played in lit England In the eighteenth century Wickersham continued DISCUSSES FLAWS He discussed many many flaws he said exist in statutes and Sand their adminIstration adminIs- adminIs ration and decried a public attitude toward oward law that encourages law lawbreaking breaking In Its inquiry WIckersham said th the commission found a serious barrIer barrie in the lack of reliable and comparable statistics This s objectionable feature the commissIon commission com corn I mission hopes to eliminate to tome some extent at least b by re recommending that hat a statistics division be established In the Justice department and later ater ext extended to the census he as as- as 4 t