Tuesday, July 4 – 1911
The Head Constable of Liverpool has just issued in voluminous forms his report on the police establishment and the state of crime in the city for the year ending December last. The book, which gives full tabular returns, makes most interesting reading, and shows the growth of population and good government in the town. At the close of last year the police establishment number was 2,073, and of this total 1,583 form the police force proper. The remaining 490 are returned as extra constables. The variations of the police force and of the city under its charge during the sixteen years to November 1910, may be summarised as follows: – The police force increased from 1,295 to 1,508, the valuation from £2,984,805 to £4,794,942; the acreage from 6,524 to 16,622; the acreage per constable from 5 to 11; the population per constable from 400 to 467; the mileage of roads (not including back passages) from 276 to 502, or 82 per cent; new houses built between 1904 and 1910 48,549; and uninhabited houses increased from 2,804 in 1901 to 7,606 in 1910.
How far the increase of crime against property during the period is due to the reduction of police protection is a question complicated by the change of methods in recording crime; but whether the amount of crime calls for a faster rate of increase of the force or not, seventy-five men a year is about as large a number as can be added. The report goes on to state that the conduct of the force is, on the whole, satisfactory, and the discipline good. Allusion is further made to the sectarian disturbances and to the finding of the Commissioner. After giving tabulated forms showing the arrests and convictions during the year, the Head Constable observes: –
“The duties of the police, to whom politics are so properly taboo, concern many matters of social interest, but the present tendency is to dispose those very questions, or rather the laws applied to them by way of remedy, not so much upon their own merits or demerits, as upon those of the political party during whose time of office they were put upon the statute book, or of the individual who happens for the time being to direct their administration. This makes it somewhat hard for a policeman to set out the opinion formed upon experience without being taken to agree or disagree with opinions formed as suggested above. I need hardly say that the opinions I express are formed entirely upon the personal experience of the police.”
Crime increasing
Mr. Dunning then asks is crime increasing? And answers with this remark: – I find that crime is increasing, that the poor suffer more through this increase than the rich, and that the sentimental attitude of the general public towards crime and the criminal must, to some extent at all events, be blamed for the increase. When Liverpool is compared with the other cities, we find that for every 100,000 of her inhabitants 450 odds, more than twice as many as in London, appear each year before the magistrates charged with indictable crimes, crimes for many of which they might have been hanged little more than 100 years ago. And this is not the whole story; it is as bad, if not worse, when you include other offenses against the law. For every 100,000 of the population in the same cities there were prosecuted in 1905 –
For Vacrancy.
Birmingham, 98,53; Leeds, 68,08; Liverpool, 130,66; Metropolitian Police District, 93,19.
For Drunkenness.
Birmingham, 668,56; Leeds, 538,33; Liverpool, 1,056,92, Metropolitian Police District, 859,55.
So far as crime against the person is concerned, the following figures for Liverpool at first sight present serious cause for alarm. Crimes (annual average) against the person, per 100,000 of the population.
1894-98, 42,31
1898-1903, 20,59
1904-1908, 36,14
1909, 63,28
1910, 57,87
But the increase in the period 1904-8 may justly be ascribed to the revival of sectarian animosity, which began to show itself in an increase of the wounding cases in 1905, culminated in 1909, and now shows a decrease, which, it may be hoped, will continue. “I have no hesitation,” adds the Head Constable, “in saying that by far the greater part of the crime in Liverpool is due to poverty, and it is therefore pertinent to inquire whether the abnormal “crime co-efficient” of Liverpool is due to an abnormal “poverty co-efficient.”
Drink and betting
Apart from poverty the two great causes of crime are drink and betting. Which of the two latter is the more fruitful cause is a question of dispute that, while crime due to drink has been and is decreasing, crime due to gambling in all forms has been and is increasing. The betting and gaming laws are in a very nebulous condition, and are often said to attack the poor man and leave the rich alone. When it is said that they attack the poor man’s opportunities of betting more than those of the rich man, there is some truth in the statement, and a very good thing too, because the poor stand in much greater need of protection than the rich. Betting has got hold, and it is doubtful whether compulsion in any form will ever do much to reduce it, because every alteration of the law will be met with some change of procedure devised for evasion. Possibly the position of the laver will be made a little less lucrative, but the backer will really be the one to pay through shortened odds. He will not mind that – a little study of football betting coupons shows how dear he will buy his money.
Amusement and dishonesty
The electric picture halls, which provide on the whole a sensible entertainment of some educative value, cater largely at their day performances for children, and the details of many of the petty larcenies brought home to children suggest that the motive for many of them is to be found in the desire for amusement. My suggestion, repated year after year (says Mr. Dunning), that there is a general decline of personal honesty in many relations of life does not meet with general acceptance, but every year I am more convinced of its truth, and every year the remedy seems harder to find. The report deals at length with the working of the Prevention of Crime Act, the Inebriates Act, and the Aliens Act, and proceeds to touch upon juvenile offenders.
Street trading
The suggestion that street trading should be absolutely forbidden to girls had occupied the attention of the Watch Committee during the year, but a recommendation that no fresh licenses be issued to girls under sixteen was not approved by the City Council.
“Upon this point,” says the Head Constable, “I beg to repeat what appeared in the report for last year, that if prohibition of trading meant removal from the street the benefit of the change would be undoubted, but the one thing does not follow the other. The proper way to attack the evil is the provision of occupation which will re-hove the excuse for street trading. Poverty and the absence of industrial occupation for women and children swelled the ranks of street traders in Liverpool to such an extent that in 1898 Parliament granted to Liverpool experimental powers of control. The same circumstances, special to Liverpool, exist till to-day, and until other occupation is available, the prohibition of street trading must mean hardship to some.”
Licensing matters
The report states that there are 1,539 public houses and 127 beer-houses in the city. The prosecutions of licensees increased from 46 to 50, but the convictions dropped from 20 to 17. The main difficulty of establishing charges, as usual, still arises from diversities of opinion upon the question “When is a man drunk?” diversities which come to light upon the further suggestion, “Who made him drunk?”
Juvenile depravity
The Head Constable points out that public attention has now been drawn to the growth of impurity among the young, boys and girls, and to the necessity as far as girls are concerned for prevention rather than cure. This, strictly speaking, is outside the province of the police, touching as it does immorality which is not unlawful, and there is no further justification for emphasizing it as has been done in former reports. The emancipation of the young from parental control, and this tendency in girls to be attracted by something out of the common, are universal. Immorality among young girls is increasing, caused by too much liberty to roam the streets, and the consequent results therefrom. The lure of the China-man is also developing among this class of girls, to their utter demoralisation in many instances. Unfortunately, part of the lure of the China-man consists in the notorious fact that he does not get drunk and does not beat his woman, which is more than can be said of many a native suitor. Harem life, or being kept in idleness and luxury, is no doubt more attractive than the life of a squaw, kept as a household drudge and rewarded with black eyes, while Christian home life as a contrast and antidote to both states is rapidly losing its influence in all grades of life.
Fire brigade
The personnel of the fire brigade, says the report, has for some years been falling short of the requirements of the growing city. The equipment of the brigade, on the other hand, keeps pace with the times. Old Swan is now the only station depending entirely on horse-drawn machines, while Central Station still uses horses for only a few of the less frequently used machines.
(Liverpool Echo, 04-07-1911)
"Play Up, Liverpool" 