How Did Jack The Ripper Affect Police

Since the Jack the Ripper case, solving crimes has changed a lot. Jack the Ripper was the biggest crime London had encountered(1).Due to the lack of proper police reinforcement Jacks murders were easy to get away with compared to how it is now(2). In this essay I will analyse how much impact the Jack the Ripper case had on investigative policing.

Communication

The Jack the Ripper case has basically helped create the police and help with communications between police. Before Jack began to start committing murders they had watchmen (basically like look ours to help stop crime and to catch criminals) the downfall to this idea is that the watchmen would often get drunk on their shift and wouldn’t stop the crime (3). As they were highly intoxicated

with alcohol they would pass out and let the criminals get away with their crimes. The government decided that they needed to get more than 8773 police to cover the vast London area. They expanded from 8773 to 14,081(4) they expanded so that they would be able to stop the crime as quick as possible. Another reason why they needed to expand their police force is so that they were able to reach the crime scene before any/too much damage was done. The Jack the Ripper case proved that just relying on witnesses/ catching the criminal in the act wasn’t good enough and the media speculation wasn’t helping with solving the case but frightening the public even more(5). Therefor the Jack the Ripper case had a huge impact on investigative policing because it improved the communication between the metropolitan police force making catching criminals easier. The impact was the improvement of communication between the police force, organisation between all the policemen and how they should arrange themselves to be more efficient and I think the biggest impact for communication was the expansion of people to stop crime because crime would have eventually gone down as they have more men to patrol and keep the streets safe.
Photography
Photography was introduced in the Jack ripper case but as it was new they didn't know how to use it efficiently enough to actually benefit them like in the Mary Kelly murder scene they took pictures of the body but not in any way useful to investigators (5).

After the Jack ripper case they started taking photographs of the body (close-ups, of the wounds, injuries) which helped identify things on the victim they would have once missed. After the Jack the ripper case motion picture development was also underway in the late 1800's which shows how far photography came in less than twenty years. (6)Photography is used so much in police investigations now and the Jack the ripper case has made a huge impact in crime scene photography, as it shows how useful it is.(7)I think this case had an impact but not very big one because there are so many other impacts the Jack the ripper case had made and compared to things like communication and forensic science , photography wouldn’t be thought to be as big as the other factors of policing g science which has been improved by investigative policing . Opposing you could say how much crime scene photography has changed in England as now they produce an accurate reproduction of a crime scene or an accident scene using photography for the benefit of a court or to aid in an investigation(8) In the Jack the ripper case this wasn't there also the technological side was different as in 1888 they had basic forensic photography equipment compared to

now where we have things like; Cameras‎, Photographic chemicals, Flash photography‎, Instant photography‎(9).

Forensic Science
Forensic Science was also newly introduced in the Jack ripper case when Dr Bond attempted an early form of "profiling". The knife and wounds pointed them in certain directions of investigation such as checking all butchers. (8)
Since the Jack the ripper case England have used forensic science a lot more which has proven useful in the police investigation (9).Forensic science has come a long way from 1888.

So much has been invented techniques such as (10): Autopsies(a post-mortem examination to discover the cause of death ), Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)(When broken glass is involved in a crime, putting together even tiny pieces can be key to finding important clues like the direction of bullets, the force of impact or the type of weapon used in a crime.),Video Spectral Comparator 2000( For crime scene investigators and forensic scientists, this is one of the most valuable forensic technologies available anywhere.),Magnetic Fingerprinting and Automated Fingerprint Identification (AFIS) (crime scene investigators, forensic scientists and police officers can quickly and easily compare a fingerprint at a crime scene with an extensive virtual database). Technology has improved so much since the Jack the ripper case, I do think Jack the ripper had a massive impact on the forensic science police investigating because they learnt so many things and ways to better themselves in investigative policing that without the Jack the Ripper case they might not have come

across.

Dr Crippen case 1910 toxicology
The quiet Dr.Crippen moved to the U.K., and worked as a homeopathic doctor in London. His wife was a well-loved and flirtatious was a struggling music hall singer .In January of 1910; Cora disappeared after attending a dinner party at her and Crippen’s home. Crippen claims that his wife went back to America, fell ill and died. He then invited scandal by asking his secretary and lover, Ethel Le Neve, to move in with him. Friends grew suspicious, and asked the police to investigate. After following up accusations the police discovered body parts body parts beneath the cellar. Police used toxicology (the branch of science concerned with the nature, effects, and detection of poisons. A type of forensic science) to discover Cora was poisoned. Crippen and Le Neve( secret lover) tried fleeing to Canada, but were apprehended after the captain of their ship used a brand new technology—the Marconi wireless machine—to alert authorities of his whereabouts. Jack the ripper case proves that forensic technology improved meaning there was an impact, the police realised they needed forensics to help with investigations like this case. They were able to find out how Cora died and was able to find her killer (Dr.Crippen) and execute him. Without The Jack the ripper case we might have not been able to have the realisation of forensic science importance therefore meaning Jack the ripper had a huge impact on forensic science.

Conclusion
In conclusion, Jack the ripper had quite a big impact on the investigative policing in England in 1888. I think this because since the case the police force would have recognised that there was a problem with solving crime as they never managed to catch Jack the ripper. A lot of improvements were made after the case and a lot of changes were made to the police force in order to cut the crime population in England so that there wouldn’t be another Jack the ripper case. If we take into consideration how bad the police force was in 1888 and compare how good it is now we can see there is a huge impact to the policing and investigation industry.
By Jodi Rose