The Scotland Yard Files: Milestones in Crime Detection

by Alan Moss, Keith Skinner

Keith Skinner and Alan Moss have selected 12 fascinating 'firsts' from the history of the world-famous Scotland Yard, including the first 'wanted' poster in the press, the first successful use of identification parades and the first conviction based on ballistics evidence.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime

191 pages, Hardcover

First published December 8, 2006

Reviews

[Jim S · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book's sub-title is "Milestones in Crime Detection" and that states it quite well. The book surveys techniques and technology pioneered by Scotland Yard to fight crime throughout it's existence.

The first covered is something so common place today that we don't give it a second thought: the police themselves. A group of uniformed individuals who patrol the streets with the goal of maintaining civil peace or, to use their term "public order". They established a "beat" system where a constable would patrol a set areas of streets on a regular basic and the effectiveness was measured by the absence of crime.

This was initially controversial. raising the spectre of "government surveillance" of the citizenry. This concern was somewhat alleviated by making the presence of police obvious by have them wear uniforms (even when off-duty!) and the accompanying improvement in public order proved the worth of the entire system.

What about when crimes like robbery or murder occurred and the culprit was not obvious? The next step was to create a force of detectives to solve these cases. The detectives, in plain clothes, were drawn from the racks of the police officers and were chosen for their intelligence. talent and integrity.

From there the books goes into techniques and technologies developed to solve crime including police line-ups, fingerprint and DNA analysis, ballistic analysis and use of the press. Along the way they examine some key cases that illustrate the use of these tools including Brown and Kennedy, the Whitechapel Murders (i.e. Jack the Ripper) and the Yorkshire Ripper.

The book was written in a straightforward style, perhaps a bit pedestrian but I don't have a problem with that. It was published in 2006 so some may consider it dated when it comes to things like DNA analysis.

[Coyney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read. Glad I read it

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book demonstrates advances in technology over the past couple of hundred years that have aided the police in catching criminals. The majority of the cases I was already familiar with from other true crime books but the focus on technology added a different element. I wouldn't say that this was riveting stuff but it helped pass a couple of hours.

[Claire]

The 'official' versions of some of the Met's most famous (and not so famous) cases, sourced from official documents deposited at the National Archives. There's not an awful lot of new stuff here, but this is a good introduction to the history of crime and policing in London.

[Cally73 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at forensic development and how it applied to certain Scotland Yard cases.