ine an a Year- Old Gangsters
Wig BP Sh i for Cee olice

| = : 7
| Special clubs for eight to thirteen-year-olds 1s the answer |
| says Commusstoner Sir Harold Scott.

I

CHILD CROOKS who work in
gangs as thieves or receivers, are one
of the biggest problems facing the
police today, says Sir Harold Scott,
Commissioner of the Metropolitan
Police.

Arrests of teen-agers have fallen,
but arrests of children of nine and ten
show a big increase, states Sir Harold
in his report for 1949.

In 1947, 349 nine-year-olds and 467
ten-year-olds were arrested. Last year
the figures were 470 and 670.

The children’s crimes ranged from
housebreaking to thefts of pedal
cycles and receiving.

Sir Harold calls for special clubs
for the eight to thirteen-year-olds if
they are to be stopped from starting
on a criminal career.

He says that about 65 per cent. of
children arrested were found to be
working in groups, and adds:

“Here is evidence of a social con-
sciousness offering a challenge to all
who believe that this youthful energy
could be made to contribute to the
public good.”

London Crime Falls

An official of the National Associa-
tion of Boys’ Clubs agrees with the
Commissioner’s recommendations, but

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says it would be an extremely difficult
job to start these clubs.

“The toughest job would be find-
ing leaders for the 8-13 age group.

Sir Harold’s report shows that for
the first time since the war there was
a big decrease in the number of
serious crimes in London—a drop of
20,050 compared with. 1948.

But crimes of violence, robberies
and assaults, and breakings are still
well above the 1938 figures.

Sir Harold says the C.I.D. attribute
the fall of adult crime to the new
Criminal Justice Act, which imposes
severer penalties on offenders.

Recognition of the
helicopter as the
world’s greatest me-
chanical life-saving
device was given an
added boost  re-
cently by the New
York City police de-
partment.

Three Bell Air-
craft Corporation
47-D1 helicopters
were placed in ser-
vice with the de-
partment’s aviation
bureau at a civic
ceremony and flight
demonstration at
Heliport No. 1 on
the East River.

These helicopters
replace an_ earlier
Bell model whose
spectacular rescue
missions have been
estimated conserv-
atively by police
officials to be re-
sponsible for saving
20 lives since pur-
chased two years
ago.

Helicopters of this
same Bell model
participated in the
dramatic rescue of
three persons ma-
rooned in the Ni-
agara River 300 feet
from the brink of
the Horseshoe Falls.

He says: “When habitual criminals
are found on arrest to be in possession
of an Act of Parliament it is a safe
assumption that their study of the new
law is dictated by something more
than academic interest.

“Indeed, it is reported that in some
cases housebreakers have disposed of
the tools of their trade.”

Value of property stolen in London
last year was £3,510,000 compared
with £4,647,000 in 1948. Property re-
covered totalled £628,000.

There were 38 murders, one fewer
than the previous year. Five (including
the deaths of two babies) were un-
solved. * *

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