The role of the police traffic control

The role of the police traffic control may be outlined as follows:

1. Record Keeping and Data Processing. – Record motor vehicle accident facts and collect and analyse data for the purpose of providing standard and adequate area-wide acci­dent records and facts essential to planning accident preven­tion measures through engineering, education, enforcement and legislation.

2. Accident Investigation. – Determine and report the cause, circumstances, and other facts of a traffic accident and obtain adequate evidence to secure prosecution of the vio­lator.

Personnel must be trained for on-the-scene investigation ranging from questioning of participants and witnesses to the examination of the vehicle and other physical evidence at the accident scene. Emphasis should be on truthful re­construction of the accident and prompt police action when violation of the law contributed to the accident. Police ac­tion at the scene directed toward the person causing the ac­cident is highly selective and highly effective enforcement.

3. Enforcement. – All police activity relating to the ob­servation of traffic violations and the police action to be taken such as warning, reporting, summoning and arresting, includes techniques for securing voluntary compliance as open patrol in plainly marked cars, patrol in unmarked cars, and radar and other forms of speed management.

Enforcement also includes techniques necessary to secure co-operation of the courts, and to assist in prosecuting traffic offenders. It also includes active cooperation with the state agency administering driver license control in order that the unlicensed driver and the driver operating while his license is suspended will be kept off the highways.

4. Direction. – Telling drivers and pedestrians how and where they may or may not move or stand at a particular place. punishment is in a county penitentiary, as distinct from a state prison, is generally a misdemeanour; where the maxi­mum punishment is one year in a penitentiary in New York, that crime is by definition a misdemeanour. An offence punishable by imprisonment in a state prison, or capitally, is a felony.

Criminal investigation department

The CID was organized in 1842 when six officers were selected to form the first Detective Department, following two attempts on Queen Victoria’s life and an outbreak of major crime in London. Now there are about 3.500 men and women detectives working in plain clothes on London’s streets.

All of them are selected for their patience and tact, and then trained to make the best use of their aptitude for detective work.

2,000 of them work from police stations in the 75 Divisions that make up the 787 square miles police by the Met. Each Divisional CID office is run by a Detective Chief Inspector, Detective Sergeants and Detective Constables to deal with crime investigations. The Detective Chief Inspector is responsible to the Divisional Chief Superintendent on all crime matters. The Division can call on the expertise of more senior Detective Officers – Detective Superintendents and Detective Chief Superintendents, who are based on each of the five Areas within the Met – in cases of murder, rape and other serious crime.

Before becoming a detective each officer must have completed two years service as a uniformed constable on probation and have served on a local crime squad, which is made up of qualified CID officer and uniformed officers working in plain clothes.

The constable will then be recommended by his Divisional Superintendent as being suitable for CID work. He will go on to face a selection board made up of two senior CID officers and a senior uniformed officer.

If selected, the officer will have to carry out further study in his own time, and then attend a training course at the Detective Training School at Hendon.

1,500 officers are split into a number of branches and squads; the principle ones are:

The Major Investigation Reserve, which can be called upon to investigate murder and other serious crimes within the Metropolitan Police District and conducts enquiries both at home and abroad on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions or other Government bodies.

The Extradition, Illegal Immigration and Passport Squad investigate organized crime relating to the obtaining of British Passports and illegal immigration. It also deals with the extradition of fugitive offenders to Foreign and Commonwealth Countries.

The Central Cheque Squad investigates offences and collates information about organized cheque, travellers cheque and credit card frauds committed against the clearing banks and major stores within the Metropolitan Police District.

The Stolen Motor Vehicle Investigation Squad stared life as part of the Flying Squad, but became a squad in its own right in 1960. it is staffed by specialists in the examination of suspect cars. They are particularly adept in spotting cars produced by “ringers”, the thieves who “ring the changes” on cars by building them from stolen parts. The squad also specializes in the investigation of organized theft from industrial car plants.

The Serious and Organized Crime Squad was formed to deal with organized crime in London, its successes have earned the men who work for it the name of “The Gangbusters”.

The Central Robbery Squad deals with investigating major armed robberies at banks, building societies, security vehicles and similar commercial targets in the Metropolis. Sometimes these investigations involve officers traveling to other parts of the country and abroad.

The Regional Crime Squad is a national network of crime squads working under a National Coordinator and dealing with serious crime.

The No. 9 Regional Crime Squad covers London and is made up of Metropolitan Police Officers and officers from the City of London Police. The squad works closely with the Central Robbery Squad as well as with other Regional Crime Squad, using and acting on information gleaned from their own confidential sources.

Members of the Regional Crime Squad and the Central Robbery Squad often use their own cars fitted with multi-channel radios, which can be tuned to the frequencies used by police forces all over the country. Each car is also fitted with a short-wave set for car to car communication. This makes it difficult for criminals “to listen in” and get advance warning of a squad’s movements.

The Criminal Intelligence Branch is the branch which collects and stores information about know and important criminals – their movements, habits and associates.

The branch is also responsible for supplying all the back-up services required by detectives working in the field, including the Laboratory liaison staff. It also has an equipment unit which develops and operates technical aids used by police.

The Metropolitan and City Police Company Fraud Department, more commonly know as the Fraud Squad, is staffed by officers from both forces and was formed in 1946 with the sole object of dealing with complex and protracted fraud cases.

Its investigations mainly concern limited companies, banks and businesses specializing in money investment at home and abroad and dealing in shares and securities. A sing of the times is that the Fraud Squad now has the national responsibility of keeping records on corruption in public life.

Fraud Squad investigations can take detectives to different parts of the word and at any one time the squad is concerned with several hundred criminal allegations involving in excess of £250 million.

The Special Branch was formed in 1883 under the title of Special Irish Branch. Its activities were concerned with investigating Fenian bombings and the Fenians themselves, who were Irish terrorists operating in London and the provinces. The word “Irish” was dropped from the name three years later and the Special Branch’s scope was widened to include providing personal protection and involvement in matters of national security.

The Anti-Terrorist Branch was formed because of terrorist activities in London. Detectives from the branch are involved in the dangerous work of investigating acts of terrorism and politically motivated crime in the Metropolitan area. The Anti-Terrorist Branch was born from the Bomb Squad, itself formed out of necessity in 1971 when London became a target for the anarchist bombers of the Angry Brigade.

Attached to this Branch are the civilian explosives officers, who have the dangerous task of dealing with suspect devices.

The International Criminal Police Organization, better known simply as Interpol, has the role of communication between the police forces of over 100 countries and the Interpol office at the Yard is equipped with the most modern radio equipment. The Metropolitan Police has men permanently stationed at Interpol’s Headquarters in Paris.

No modern CID can work without the help of the scientists. The Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory provides the detectives of the force with the expertise of highly qualified scientists working in the Laboratory’s five basic areas – Biology, Chemistry, Photography, Documents and Firearms.

The Laboratory also analyses specimens sent in from the Home Counties’ police forces and can provide the conclusive piece of evidence to secure a conviction. Conversely, it can often eliminate a suspect from a case and establish his or her innocence.