Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1922)

232 Radio Broadcast enemies of society will not stop with this. With apartment houses equipping their suites with radio extensions from a central receiving set ; with thousands of city dwellers hitching themselves to radio waves; with virtually every farmhouse equipped with radio to meet the farmer's business needs as well as furnish him diversion; with the American radio chain reaching round the world, and the Signal Corps, Post Office, and other nets being developed to cover every inch of American soil, the future of crooks looks discouraging! Still more intensively, I believe, radio will be employed for police purposes. At sea we know that when the SOS jams the air, every neighboring ship stands by. On land when a similar jams the air, in any emergency, every neighboring individual will stand by. At sea we have compass stations, a v/onderful chain of them, brought into existence to combat submarines. Also we have radio beacons continuously emitting their warnings by radio. And on shore there is no reason why we should not have SOS Extract of a letter sent by William J. Burns, Director, Bureau of Investigation, Department of justice, to all chiefs oj police. One of the first observations which Mr. Daugherty made, after assuming the duties of Attorney General, was to appreciate the need of establishing a Bureau of Investigation that would function promptly and effectively and at the same time have the confidence and cooperation of the forces of law and order in each town, city, and state. It is the desire of the Attorney General and myself to bring about this cooperation by a closer relationship between the local police forces of the country and the Bureau of Investigation of this department. In line with this desire, the Attorney General and myself have had several conferences with the representative of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, through the medium of the National Bureau of Criminal Identification, and have obtained suggestions for the effective inaugurating and carrying out of the plans for cooperation. These conferences have been most productive and have led now to the crystallizing of the plan for the establishment of a Central Bureau of Identification in the Department of Justice in which will be placed the fingerprints, photographs, and all detailed information available concerning criminals in this country. This it is hoped will not only be of material aid to the federal government but wil' be of invaluable assistance to the law-enforcing department of the cities and states. Motorcycle for police, equipped witli the Thompson submachine a radio outfit. This is the most modern of all police equipmen rapidly being adopted by cities all over the country radio beacons at every cross-roads. Even now these could be provided: If then a murderer— a John Wilkes Booth, let us say — were at large in Ohio or Maryland, say, that man could be caught by radio. His description could be put upon theall-pervadingether without his knowledge. Every apartment, every farmhouse, every gathering point of human beings, and mounted constabulary as well (the Canadian Mounted Police are now experimenting with radio) would have his description. Evennow^ with our present broadcasting system, any fugitive could be broadcasted pretty thoroughly. If, in addition, by the use of multiplex telephony, for instance, as General George O. Squier suggests, along every highway there were alarm boxes, radio would indeed be the handmaid of the police and of all communities. We have seen so many cases of fugitives overtaken by wireless on the sea — the first was that of Dr. Crippen, who was caught by wireless en route to Canada under an assumed name, arrested on landing, returned to gun and t and is