OCR Text |
Show Swift Punishment of Crime. The most Important duty of any police po-lice force U the control of the vagrant and criminal classes and the prevention preven-tion of crimes against person and property. There are many other and Important fields of usefulness, but unless un-less the force Is successful In dealing with crime it is a failure. As a deterrent deter-rent of crime, nothing is probably more effective than swift and sure punishment. punish-ment. In England a murder trial Is completed within a few weeks, or months at the outside, after the apprehension appre-hension of the accused, and from the first trial there Is no appeal to a higher court of review or appeal. The wisdom of permitting no appeal In capital cases is a question which has been widely discussed, and cannot be taken up here, says Avery D. Andrews, writing for the March Cosmopolitan. Whether wise and humane or not. It is interesting to note that the police records show an astonishingly small number of murders in London, and I believe that the celerity ce-lerity with which the trials are conducted con-ducted has much to do with the suppression sup-pression of this most heinous of all crimes. According to the official report of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Metropoli-tan Police, there were reported to the London police only twenty-four murders mur-ders In the calendar year 1901. and this out of a population of over (.000,000. |