As crime fighters, the R.C.M.P. take a back seat
to no one. They are technicians as well-trained, as
well-organized and as efficient as any tn the world.

* By DON OSBORNE *

pays well. However, the crim-

inal revenue of the Canadian
underworld is considerably smaller
than it ought to be in ratio to that of
other countries. This is due to a
group of men Jed by Commissioner
L. H. Nicholson, M.B.E., and more
directly Assistant Commissioner M. F.
E. Anthony, the boss of the R.C.M.P.’s
“C” (Criminal Investigation) Depart-
ment.

While the Criminal Investigation
Branch is few in number compared to
the element which they combat, they
are all specialists in their field, and
among the best crime-fighters on the
continent.

(Mies is big business, and it

Let us take a look at this crime-
fighting machine known as “C” De-
partment. At its head stands the
Assistant Commissioner, a veteran of
many years spent in combating crim-
inal activities. Under him are the de-
partment’s three branches—Identifica-
tion, Preventive Service and Special.
Also under the command of the ace
crime-fighter are the local Criminal
Investigation Branches located in all
large cities across the country and
staffed by men who have been trained
in respective branches of criminology.
The force has two Crime Detection

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Page Twelve

Laboratories, at Regina, Sask., and
Rockcliffe, Ontario.

One of the nerve-centres of
Department’s operations is the Identi-
fication Branch which acts as a clear-
ing house in identification matters,
not only for this force, but also for all
other police forces, both domestic and
foreign.

Here in huge banks of metal filing
cabinets are tabulated and indexed
everything that is known about the
nations criminals and their activities.

Ty aad

Radio-equipped R.C.M.P. patrol cars have
greatly aided in combating crime

At first glance it would appear that
the work of the officers and clerks in
the branch’s various sections—finger-
print, crime index, photographic,
firearms registration — was routine
run-of -the-mill. In the main it is—but
not always.

By matching print against print the
experts of the fingerprint section have
time and again ferreted out persons
who would have preferred to remain
unknown. Murder bullets fired by
unknown assailants from unknown

ee
F. W. A. Mapleton

Patent Medicines, Stationery, School Sup-
plies, Fancy China, Chocolates, Films,
Tobaccos, Fishing Tackle, Sporting
Goods, Magazines

Toilet Accessories, Subscriptions taken for
all Periodicals, Gifts and Novelties,
Films Developed and Printed

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guns have lain for years in the files
of the branch’s central bureau to be
matched, eventually, against a gun
taken from a petty criminal picked up
on a breaking and entering charge.
The files never forget, and they never
give up.

Crime Index “~

The “C” Department's strongest
weapon in its war on crime is prob-
ably the Identification Branch Crime
Index. Every criminal who has ever
come to the attention of .the author-
ities has a nitch in this file that lists
and cross-indexes lawbreakers by their
descriptions, associates, criminal
records, favorite criminal activities
and methods of operation.

Very often the Crime Index will
pull an “ident” out of thin air and
more than one mystified lawbreaker
has found himself behind bars with-
out knowing that it was the Crime
Index that put him there. The Index
is able to do this because criminals,
as a rule, are creatures of habit. A
safe-cracker will very seldom turn his
hand to a stick-up while a man who
breaks into service stations does not
burgle private homes. When a crime
against property is committed the
“C” Departinent investigators send the
known facts such as the means of
entrance used, the kind of goods
taken, the type of building entered
and the transportation used, to the
Crime Index section. By elimination
the Index eventually comes up with
the name of an underworld artist
whose method of operation fits the
one used in the crime.

Let us take a look at the Identifica-
tion Branch in action, as it went into
action on the Ralph Warren case.
This case began on September 27,
1943, when the St. Boniface, Man.,
police issued a circular advising that
a man known as Ralph Warren was
wanted in that city for the theft of
$80. A night club photograph of the
wanted man was forwarded to the
R.C.M.P. Identification Branch.

THE SHOULDER STRAP

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