• 1955 Federal Bureau of Investigation FEBRUARY United States Department of Justice Vol. 24 No.2 J. Edgar Hoover, Director FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin • Restricted to the Use of Law Enforcement Officials • FEBRUARY 1955 Vol. 24, No.2 CONTENTS P age Statement of Director J. Edgar Hoover . 1 The FBI Law En- FBI National Academy: forcement Bulletin Fifty­Fourth Class Graduates From FBI National Academy 2 is issued 1Il0nthly Feature Article: to law­enforcelllent Organization and Details of a Bank Holdup Alarm Plan, by Lt. Wade agencies through- H. Knight, Commanding Homicide, Robbery, and Auto Theft out the United Division, Detective Bureau, Columbus, Ohio, Police Department . 7 States. Much of Police Training: the data appearing Police Training Programs for an Expanding City, by Harold F. herein is of a confi- McInroe, Chief of Police, Lubbock, Tex. 12 dential nature and A Police Academy and Recreation Center . 15 its circulation Communications and Records: should be restricted Record Bureaus for Medium­Sized Police Departments, by Robert to law­enforcelllent O. Flood, Personnel Clearance Branch, Security Division, AEC, officers; therefore, formerly Chief of Police, Lewiston, Idaho . 16 material contained Crime Prevention: in this Bulletin A Small Farm Makes a Model Police Boys' Camp, by Maj. Russell lIlay not be re- A. Hawes, Superintendent of Police, Alexandria, Va. 21 printed without Identification: prior authorization Questionable Pattern . back cover by the Federal Bureau of Investi- Other Topics: gation. Some Features of Our Modem Police Building, by Gerald J. Sullivan, Chief of Police, Euclid, Ohio . .. 24 Modernizing a Small Police Department, by Edgar D. Coffin, Chief of Police, Verona, N. J. 27 Surveillance by Television 11 The Story of the FBI . 15 Published by the FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington 25, D. C. 1ltnit~il itates i1~partm~nt of 1Justir~ 1H~il~ra1 fJJur~au of l!nu~stigation masqington 25, 1ll. at. February 1, 1955 TO ALL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS: Extension of the Social Security Act by the Eighty­third Congress to cover additional classes of citizens suggests a warning to both the public and law enforcement officers to be on the lookout for impostors who falsely represent themselves to be connected with the administration of this Act and in a position to confer benefits under it in return for a fee or some other type of cash payment. There have already been several instance s in which the Social Security Act was used as a basis for swindling elderly men and women and it would seem wise to anticipate more crimes of this type as the scope of financial security legislation is broadened. Each successive group of newly entitled recipients enlarges the number of potential victims available to the profes sional swindler. One type of offense to be expected was exposed last year when two women were br ought into a Federal District Court in Virginia on charge s of irr;personating Government representatives as a part of a scheme to defraud elderly persons of their savings. Evidence was introduced to show that the accused had represented themselves as social security workers and had told their victims that the latter were entitled to certain benefits but must first pay "settlement charges" to clear their eligibility. Both women entered pleas of guilty and were sentenced to serve penitentiary terms for the fals e personation of officials of the Federal Gov:ernment. Alert police officers brought reports of the fraud to the FBI and in so doing may have saved many potential victims from being swindled out of their savings. The total number of these frauds reported thus far is admittedly small, particularly when measure d against the scope of social security legis­ 1ation. They do represent, however, a particularly reprehensible type of crime and every effort should be made to keep them to an absolute minimum. Very truly yours, ~ . ~ ~.'O' .... .c.~ JO ~ Edgar Hoover Director Fifty-Fourth Class FBI Graduates From FBI NATIONAL 1\CADEMY National Academy On Friday, November 19, 1954, graduation exer­ You will note that-not quite in accord with strict cises were held in the Departmental Auditorium in Pl'oto('ol-1 address flrst those who are about to become /,'TaduatelS of this academy, and secondly the noted per­ Wa hington, D. C., for the 54th class to graduate onal-:es who make this occasion possible and who honor from the FBI National Academy. The 78 mem­ it hy their presence. bers of the class represented police departments, It is you graduates-soon-to-be--who are important to­ sheriffs' offices, State law enforcement organiza­ day. I am sure Mr. Hoover, his staff, and others here tions, and other public offices engaged in some would Join me in saying that. It is you-and thousands of your fellow workers in law phase of law enforcement. There were represent­ enforcement represented and led by you-who benefit atives from nearly all of the 48 States, from directly from the training which culminates in these cere­ Puerto Rico, Alaska, the Canal Zone, and from monies today. our neighbor to the north, the Dominion of It is you who are to be congratulated on what you have Canada. accomplished during your weeks in the academy, and to After the addresses and a program of music by whom the people of your communities and yoU!' country will look for more effective and more dedicated service the 1 nited States Marine Band Orchestra, diplo­ on your return home with the knowledge, methods, and ma were presented to the graduates by Assistant attitudes acquired here. Attorney General Warren Olney III and FBI In a larger but equally true sense, it is the people of Director J. Edgar Hoover. the United States of America who are to be congratulated With this graduation, the alumni of the FBI on having such an institution as this to help guard their lives and their properties and, yes, their very liberties­ National Academy total 2,904. The primary pur­ and on having such men a you to attend the institution pose of the school continues to be that of training and to spread its teachings throughout the land. law enforcement officers from State and local I am, happily for me, no stranger to schools and to areas to serve as police instructors and adminis­ commencement exercises. I was reared on a college trators. campus. Since childhood I have been attending gradu­ ations of many kinds and in various capacities. I have the greatest admiration and respect for schools, Addresses colleges, academies, and universities of many different kinds. Each has its function, and all those functions Sgt. Francis Michael Sulli van, of the New York are important. City Police Department, president of the class, ~'hel'e is no substitute for primary training in our lan­ guage, written and spoken, and in simple mathematics­ spoke on the necessity of preparation and inspi­ the old-fashioned but still vital three R's, if you will. ration as the fundamental requirements for effec­ There is no substitute for a knowledge of our history and tive law enforcement work. our institutions. These things, and many others, we and The principal addresses were delivered by our ('hildren acquire in elementary and high schools. Wright Bryan, editor of the Cleveland, Ohio, There is a place--a great place, an ever-continuing and ever-growing place--in our society for higher education Plain Dealer, and Ron. Lewis L. Strauss, Chair­ in the arts and theoretical sciences, the things of culture man, U. S. Atomic Energy Commission. Dr. whieh enrich and broaden lives. John J. Rice, of the National Presbyterian There is a place--an urgent place in these highly in­ Church, Washington, D. C., gave the invocation dustrialized and mechanized, these technological times­ and benediction. for training and research in the applied sciences. That plaee is an unadorned fact, an awesome one. The engi­ neer and the advanced physicist have, at this moment The Law and the News in history, a predominant position, to which the other speaker here today can testify more effectively than I, Mr. Bryan spoke on the subject of the relation­ but of which everyone alive today must be aware. But there is also a place--and this is where you gentle­ ship between law enforcement officers and news­ men come in-for the inten ive, practical education of papers, magazines, radio, and television. The adult, working men and women in the techniques by which full text of his address follows: they can accomplish their tasks more successfully. 2 FBI LAW ENFORCEMENT BULLETIN The genel'al body of knowledge and the complexity of an hour on the rough dirt roads of that time. There was our society have grown so rapidly that none of us, no no parking problem then. matter what his job, can hope to do that job well without I n cities hi job was greater in volume but not much constantly renewing his schooling in the newest and different in kind. be 't­the most effective­­practices and procedures, wher­ Today, as each of you knows, it is another story. ever and however they ma~ ' be de'-eloped. The massing of millions of people into crowded center This is true of law enforcement, a it i in my own makes relationships between man and man, between field of newspaper work, as it is of medicine or railroad­ family and famil~ ' , more intricate and at the same time ing or merchandising or flying-or any other field. more difficult. We know each other less well as indi­ Almo t everyone--the exceptions only prove the rule-­ viduals, often we cannot tell the law-abiding from the wants to do a good job.