Communication Systems of

the English Police

While Serving in Britain with the Royal Canadian Air Force, ex-Constable
Jack Meek was Privileged to Have a FirstHand View of the Heart of
London's Police Communication System — Police Radiomen will be Interested
in His Description of the Network Which Carried on Through the Peak

VHEN I WAS posted to a remote Lin-
olnshire aerodrome as navigation in-
tructor I was fortunate in having
*/I, Norman Watson, D.F.C., as my
joss. Fortunate because F/L Watson
vas a former Metropolitan policeman in
_ondon and had later transferred to Not-
ingham City Police. As we had much of
nutual interest, it was only a matter of
ime that I eventually received an invi-
ation to visit the Headquarters of the
Nottingham City Police with him.

By a lucky coincidence F/O T. M.
Youngberg, formerly of Nelson Division-
il Office, B.C. Police, was visiting me, so
he two of us accompanied our host to
Nottingham. As we had learned by ex-
yerience, it was easier and quicker to
litch-hike the hundred odd miles, which
ve did in excellent time. That evening
ve were entertained by our host and his
nany friends in a manner characteristic-
ly English.

Next morning we were duly presented
0 the Chief Constable of Nottingham
sity Police who, after a short chat, passed
1s to the care of the Assistant Chief, who
showed us about the main building.
Nottingham has one of the foremost
dolice organizations in England, and the
low and ultra - modern headquarters
nuilding is very good evidence. The city
doasts of one of the finest police schools
n England, both city and county police
for many miles around attending.

Perhaps the best known side of the
Nottingham City Police is—or rather
vas, until the war stopped its activities—
he prominence of its members in almost
very branch of sport. The police even
lave their own football and cricket
grounds. In pre-war days inter-police
sports meets were popular and would in-
lude athletes from various Forces all
ver Western Europe.

We were taken to the photographic sec-
ion of the C.I.B. where a new system of
riminal photography was being experi-
nented with, which involved three views
nstead of the orthodox two. Also to the
noulage room, with various models of
louses and grounds where crimes are re-

FIFTEENTH EDITION

of the Great Blitz.

constructed and illustrated to police stu-
dents. A most interesting little museum
is within the building; several ancient
policemen’s rattles attracted my attention.
I was surprised to see the batons of the
old-time “bobbies’”” were works of art;
they were usually made of a light coloured
wood and gaily painted in a multitude of
subjects, the whole being then varnished.

SPLENDID SysTEM OF POLICE Rapro

We eventually reached the top floor and
this was—to me at least—the most in-
teresting section, as it housed the police

R. J. Meek.

radio system. Sergt W. O. Wigg had in-
stalled the system for the Nottingham
City Police and had remained with the
Force since the days of their first experi-
mental sets. Communication is entirely
by voice, the control rooms are in the
main building, but the transmitting
towers are situated several miles away

ov

By
‘F/O R. J. MEEK, D-F.C., C.6.M.

vm

in a more favourable location. As in most

ommunication systems during the war,
an emergency transmitter lay near at
hand ever ready to take over should an
emergency arise. Strangely enough, I was
the first person Sergt. Wigg had ever met
who was in a similar field of work, so I
was overwhelmed with a barrage of tech-
nical questions, only a few of which I
could answer.

It seems that Nottingham City had
been one of the first police organizations
in England to have phone communication
with cars. At the present time transmit-
ters are fitted to ordinary touring cars and
even to what appear at first to be ordinary
commercial delivery vans. One such car
is illustrated herewith, and is composed
of a generator, a transmitter on 96.5
megacycles, with about 18 watts output,
and a very efficient little receiver. Except-
ing for the whip antenna, one would
never know a radio set was in the car.
Since its inception over a dozen years
ago constant experiment and improve-
ment have brought the system to a state
of efficiency which has paid for itself
many times.

We were invited for lunch in the build-
ing. The Police Association provide hot
meals at a very reasonable price to their
members. We met many police while on
our tour and all were very interested in
what sort of-a law enforcement body we
had in B.C. I was rather surprised at
the large number of inspectors and sub-
inspectors, there being approximately one
to twenty constables and N.C.O.s In-
cidentally, I never saw a corporal, but
there were a lot of sergeants.

Ten days later I met Sergt. Stan Ken-
dall of the Metropolitan Police, London.
I had corresponded with Sergt. Kendall
in the early 30’s when we were both en-
tering our respective police forces, and
this was my first meeting with him. Ken-
dall had arranged a little tour for me
which included historic Bow Street Police
Court where we listened to a number of
cases being disposed of; the Old Bailey
England’s Central Criminal Court—
where four separate cases were being

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