70 • Our chief law enforcers — the police

arrested Crippen and Le Neve. They were returned to England and sent for trial at the Old Bailey. Crippen was tried first. After a trial lasting five days, on 22 October the jury retired at 2.15 p.m. They returned to court with their verdict at 2.42 p.m. Crippen was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Still protesting his innocence, he was executed on 23 November. Ethel Le Neve was later acquitted of assisting Crippen's escape.

THE MODERN FORCE

There are 43 local police forces in England and Wales. Each is supervised by a Police Authority, made up of local people who are responsible for policing in the area. In 1993 a National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) was set up to gather information sent in by forces from all over the country. The NCIS is scheduled in 2006 to become part of a new Serious Organised Crime Agency, set up to fight major, organised crime. The facilities provided by NCIS are available to all the police forces. The Police National Computer, which stores a vast amount of information about crime and criminals, is another important instrument in the fight against crime.

The headquarters of the Metropolitan Force has for many years been at New Scotland Yard. At one time it occupied a private house in Whitehall Place, the back of which opened on to a courtyard. This had been the site of a residence owned by the Kings of Scotland, and the courtyard became known as Scotland Yard. When a new police station was built which had to be entered from the yard, it was called New Scotland Yard. Now the police headquarters is a huge building, which also houses the 'Black Museum'. This museum, which contains gruesome exhibits from many notorious trials, is also used to train new recruits in the many ways in which lethal weapons may be disguised.

The police now have the use of advanced modern equipment. This ranges from 'souped-up' motorbikes and squad cars to helicopters. It includes the most advanced surveillance aids, and instantaneous access to the Police National Computer and the facilities of the Forensic Science Service. This service runs highly sophisticated laboratories where forensic (legal) scientists carry out the scientific examination of exhibits.

Many police officers are highly trained and dedicated experts. Specially selected officers are permitted to carry firearms when dealing with dangerous criminals. Police officers are trained in many other skills. The following is a list of just a few of the specialist branches of the force:

• Crime prevention. All forces have a department of officers trained to give advice on how citizens may best protect themselves and their property against criminals. They often visit schools and make presentations to

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children. They also work in co-operation with members of local Neighbourhood Watch Committees.

• Community relations. The job of Community Liaison Officers is to improve relations between the police and the different parts of the community they serve, including young people in the area. This includes race relations work. In many areas of the country the police have 'schools involvement programmes', where School Liaison Officers visit schools to talk about subjects as diverse as citizenship, 'crime busting', drugs, and 'personal safety'—which covers such issues as bullying, peer group pressure, racial harassment, and dealing with the attentions of strangers.

• Dog handling. These officers are specially skilled in training and handling police dogs, whose duties may range from protection against violent criminals to assisting as 'sniffer dogs' in the investigation of crime. This, of course, includes assisting the drugs squad and HM Customs to detect the presence of dangerous drugs, and the anti-terrorist squad to detect explosives. In July 1997, the Metropolitan Police Dog Section celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.

• Mounted police. Even in these modern times the police still make use of horses as a particularly effective means of crowd control, although some forces are considering disbanding the units for reasons of expense. Police horses must be at least 16 hands high. They undergo a period of intensive training to learn to cope with noisy traffic and hostile crowds, and take for granted pistol shots and missiles—even petrol bombs.

• Scenes of crimes and forensic science. Scenes of Crimes Officers (SOCOs), as their name implies, are expert in visiting the scenes of crimes and searching for clues. They take fingerprints or the castings of shoe-prints, and remove any item of interest which will require laboratory examination. Police officers are also trained to work in the laboratories. For instance, they may become expert in firearms and the comparison of ammunition, or fingerprints.

• Drugs Squad. These officers must become expert in the identification of a whole range of prohibited dangerous drugs and substances—from heroin to cannabis, ecstasy to glue-sniffing. They must become familiar with the 'drugs scene' and the various types of people who become involved in it. Many officers turn out to be excellent actors—working in the drugs scene as undercover officers. At one end of the scale they will be trying to catch the major international drugs smugglers and dealers; at the other, they must handle the distressing cases of those who have become addicted to the most dangerous drugs, and have turned to crime to pay for them.