Another point that the police were to blame for the failure to capture jack the ripper was that they wasted a lot of time in following up bogus leads; the police went with the circumstantial evidence of an unsure witness, source ‘D’ when they could have used there resources to do other things.
It was obvious that the ripper was not a local resident because most of the murders were on the weekend. The police still thought that the murderer was a local; source F proves this point.
Source E suggest that it was the fault of the police for not catching the killer. Because it says this was bound to happen if there was no order on the streets at night. Time and time again the police ignored peoples request to greater the number of police presence in the area, it also goes onto suggest that the police were warned that more murder would take place if the number of police at night was increased.
Another reason for the failure to capture jack the ripper is stated in source F. this source is a police notice appealing to the residence of white chapple. It states that the killer is a local person but it is quite clear that this is not the case as all the murders took place on a weekend or on a Friday. Therefore, this concludes the police’s ignorance in this case.
However, on the contrary the police were seen not to be blamed for not capturing jack the ripper. Because of a number of a reasons; these were the following:
Lack of aids in the capturing of jack the ripper- apart from the autopsies and taking statement there was little else the police could do. Forensics was a thing not known to the police. In fact at the time that these murders were taking place it was believed that taking a close up of the victim’s eye would reveal the identity of the killer. Today hunting a serial killer would require the use of finger printing, forensics, DNA, and the use of the media like crime watch. In 1888 the police could not even get a decent artist impression, the only media attention they got was negative and unhelpful
An other point is that the police greatly increased their presents in the white Chapple at the height of the murders. In some cases the constables stumbled across the bodies while they were still warm. Unless the ripper was actually caught red handed the police had little chance of actually solving the case.
Another problem which the police could not control was the lack of a reward. It was common for the police to offer a reward to the local population for any information about a serious crime, but it was the not the case for the ripper murders. The attitude at the time was that the police were incompetent and that sir Charls warren was only good for policing and crowd control he was especial criticized for not giving out a reward in the hope that the accomplice would come forwards. In fact, Warren had no objection against the reward it was the home sectary that was against this. This is proven in source G that is a letter to the mile end vigilant committee from the sectary of state
It is also wise to note that the police were very much in there infancy the police force had been set up for crime prevention not for solving crimes. The police were given hardly any training and the training that they was given was based on ‘proper behaviour’ the biggest emphasis was to look good and dress smartly they found out how to do there jobs by ‘picking it up on the beat’
Another problem (which is also stated towards the end of source E) is that white chapel was a very violent crowded area with lots of interconnecting alleyway housing some sort of vile criminal activity. White Chapel was extremely hard to police at the best of times. The murderer would have easily have blended into the crowd and not have stood out, the alley way would have hidden his movements and provided a quick escape
Another problem faced by the police and which is also shown in source H, is that the murders were motiveless there was not the slightest clue left at any scene all the police could hope for was some luck that would lead to the capture of the killer
In conclusion Jack the Ripper was a murder case destined never to be solved by the police. It is important to emphasise that the police failure to arrest and prosecute the killer of the white chapel murders does not mean that that they did not work hard to capture the killer of the prostitutes. They had worked hard to follow up all leads and all possibilities but there techniques were limited as has been explained previously. I have come to the conclusion the police were not to blame for the failure to capture Jack the Ripper
