Policeman - phones for investigations : Alan Burt

Transcript

I do remember an incident where we had three guys go through Weymouth and out of Weymouth on through the port to France and they were wanted for a murder in Hampshire. I remember communicating with officers in France and speaking to them, and explaining what had happened, and how important it was to detain these men. But there was no doubt that without that phone I just can't imagine how we would have dealt with it. Those people would have gone into France and disappeared, and that would have been a very difficult enquiry, whereas we were able to speak to them straight away and they were apprehended and subsequently bought back to England. In the old days, if you had a fingerprint that you wanted checked quickly it was a case of sticking it on the train at Weymouth railway station or wherever (and) sending it up to Scotland Yard in order to get somebody to identify the fingerprint. Now of course all that nonsense (has) stopped and providing you get a good image you can transmit that and you can quickly identify the guy you've got in custody who won't tell you his name.