Book Review: Police Patrol Techniques and Tactics
| Author | Bruce Swanton |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587901200213 |
| Published date | 01 June 1979 |
| Date | 01 June 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
BOOK
REVIEWS
61
relative
individual
and
collective
merits
of
particular
evidence
in establishing
the
various
accuseds'
guilt
beyond
reasonable
doubt.
Essentially it is
Professor
Hawkins
thesis
that
alternative
verdicts
could
reasonably
have
been
reached.
As
the
author
readily
argues, if an
additional
alternative
verdict
of
"not
proven"
was
available
to Australian juries, as it is to Scottish juries, in
fact
some
of the
accuseds
examined
would
perhaps
have
been
found
"not
proven"
rather
than
guilty of
the
crimes
alleged.
In this
book,
Professor
Hawkins
indicts
the
media
in its
role
of
sensationalizing
alleged
crimes
and
thereby
creating
a
public
"image"
of
persons
under
suspicion
potentially
prejudicial
to
the
eventual
outcome
of
the
jury trial.
The
Ryan
case
is
presented
in this light. Similarly
the
potentially
dangerous
and
prejudicial
effect
of
rumour
and
"small
town
talk"
on
the
minds
of jurors is
reflected
in
the
author's
examination
of
the
cases
of
Ratten
and
Van Beelen. While
these
issues
are
undoubtedly
somewhat
elemental
to
those
"expert"
in
matters
of
criminal
justice, this
very
readable
book
provides
a
valuable
forum
for
these
concepts
to
be
publicized
to
the
lay
public
and
hopefully
thereby,
generating
debate.
How
these
problems
are
solved
does
not
fail to
be
considered
by
the
author;
but
are
simply
raised as
being
significant factors
affecting
the
determination
of guilt in
many
cases.
Despite
the
various
cited
attempts
of
persons
of
considerable
judicial
eminence,
including
Sir
John
Barry
and
Lord
Denning,
to
interpret
the
notion
of
"beyond
reasonable
doubt",
real
enlightenment
as to
the
actual
import
of
those
words
is
never
achieved.
The
book
highlights,
albeit
indirectly,
that
this notion,
which
is
paid
so
much
lip-service
by
the
judiciary, is
ultimately
subjective
and
dependent
on
semantics;
emphasizing
the
inevitable
frailty
of
the
whole
process.
Professor
Hawkins
obviously
favours
and
argues
for
a
liberal
interpretation
of
the
notion.
However,
he
does
not
deal
expressly
with
the
semantic
question.
The
style
could
be
criticized
for
being
alittle
melodramatic
due,
probably,
to
the
adaptation
for
television.
Of
course,
the
author
has in
each
case
the
advantage
of
considerable
hindsight
in
each
of
the
four
cases
considered.
This
naturally is
an
advantage
our
existing
jury
trials
do
not
have;
which
highlights
the
limitations
of the provisions
dealing
with
criminal
appeals
in this
country.
This
issue is
not
dealt
with
in
any
detail
in this
work.
Nevertheless,
the
author
would
appear
to
support
significant
reforms
and
liberalization of
present
restrictions on
interpretation
in this
area
to
eliminate
imbalances
which
he sees as
inherent
in
our
current
criminal
procedures.
ANDREW
GOLDSMITH
Renmark
Police
Patrol
Techniques
And
Tactics,
Vern
LFolley,
Charles
C
Thomas,
Springfield, Illinois (1973)
pp
172, US$9.75.
Publishers
sometimes
assign
misleading
titles to
their
books.
The
book
under
review
is a
case
in
point.
The
material
comprising
the
volume
originally
appeared
in Laui &Order,
over
a six
year
period,
under
the
more
appropriate
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