Book Review: R. Reiner Law and Order: An Honest Citizen's Guide to Crime and Control Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007. 252 pp. ISBN 978—0—74—562997—1
| Author | Michael Rowe |
| DOI | 10.1177/17488958090090020802 |
| Published date | 01 May 2009 |
| Date | 01 May 2009 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews 249
advantage of CCTV footage in interrogation and the laying of charges by
trying to elicit confessions through false discussion of acts caught on tape.
Many officers commented on how their superiors warned them about being
watched on the cameras when responding to calls from town centers. For
Goold, open-street CCTV does not influence overall police strategy, but is
simply used as another tool to increase police response time and effectiveness.
Given these findings, Goold questions why civil libertarians continue to
equate the spread of open-street CCTV with the coming of Orwell’s Big
Brother.
There are many similarities and differences between the British and
Canadian cases as regards the rise of open-street CCTV. One major similarity
is the context-dependent relationship between police and municipal govern-
ment regarding public area surveillance camera implementation and oper-
ation. One major difference is the role federal and provincial level privacy
legislation as well as grassroots resistance has played in tempering the pace
of open-street CCTV expansion in Canada. Research like Goold’s will
allow comparative links to be made between surveillance studies researchers
working on CCTV issues in different countries.
Goold’s claim, however, that police tend not to use the information gen-
erated by open-street CCTV and tend not to share it with federal security and
intelligence agencies needs to be seriously reassessed post-9/11, post-7/7 and
after the Madrid train bombing. In addition, there is a lack of engagement
with newer theoretical literature concerning surveillance and governance.
Goold’s ethnography of the control rooms and police/operator interaction
is detailed, but he does not extend his research interest toward the courts or
other governing agencies to see the diverse ways information generated by
open-street CCTV systems is used by these agencies in decisions made about
governing people’s lives. Moreover, there is no mention of the role of CCTV
suppliers’ relationship to the Home Office and local government.
CCTV and Policing is an important empirical contribution to the emerging
surveillance studies literature, which has tended to be overly hypothetical.
This book will be enjoyed by scholars concerned with policing, surveillance,
criminology and legal studies.
R. Reiner
Law and Order: An Honest Citizen’s Guide to Crime and Control
Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007. 252 pp. ISBN 978–0–74–562997–1
• Reviewed by Michael Rowe, Victoria University of Wellington, New
Zealand
This is a fascinating and engaging review of the contemporary politics of law
and order and a sustained critique of neo-liberalism. As the book’s sub-title
indicates, it provides an accessible review of the social and political career
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