Canute 1965
| Author | Robert Mark |
| Published date | 01 November 1965 |
| Date | 01 November 1965 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X6503801114 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ROBERT
MARK
ChiefConstable
of
Leicester
Mr. Mark reviews below an important new book on the control
of
policeforces by government.
(;ANUTE
1965
It
is unlikely that anyone but a historian will know more about
Canute I, King of England from 1016 to 1035, than that whilst sitting
on the beach one day he unsuccessfully ordered the incoming tide to
retreat. His achievements as an administrator, at one time ruler
of
three kingdoms,
and
the bringer of a degree of order and security to
this country are largely forgotten or unheeded. This seems rather
unjust but is typical of the cavalier and illogical way in which fortune
confers fame or reputation so often for the wrong reasons and equally
unjustly condemns virtue and achievement to oblivion.
Mr. Geoffrey Marshall, University Lecturer in Politics and Fellow
of Queen's College, Oxford, seems likely to achieve with his recent
book Police and Government (Methuen, 21s.) the same unwanted
distinction on a lesser scale for similar reasons, for he has set himself
the even greater task of proving that the flow
of
the tide is illusory.
The tide, in his case, is the widespread and increasing acceptance in
recent years that the provincial police should be subject to greater
control by central government, less control by local government and
a growing popular determination that the police should not suffer
interference in their operational role other than from authorities
expressly empowered by Parliament for that purpose.
The book is an extension of the views expressed by the author
in the autumn, 1960, issue
of
Public Administration.
It
will be wel-
comed by the Association of Municipal Corporations. Indeed,
policemen generally may perhaps be forgiven for suspecting that it
may have been inspired by that Association, which has long expressed
the same views in a less erudite and convincing manner.
It
is not,
however, likely to be greeted with enthusiasm by anyone else because
it does not attempt to relate theory to practice and it runs against a
strong tide of current opinion.
The most important and controversial view expressed by the
author is .that the powers of local police authorities in relation to
the institution and withdrawal of prosecutions should
not
be regarded
as essentially different from those of the Home Secretary as police
authority for the Metropolitan police district. He suggests
that
as a
matter
of
strong convention
and
sound administrative practice,
intervention in routine prosecution matters should be excluded
but
that in extreme cases instructions ought not to be ruled out.
In particular, he argues that no general legal principle does rule
out the giving
of
instructions by local police authorities to chief
constables with regard to particular cases. The real implications of
this claim can perhaps best be emphasized by my opposing view that
November 1965 552
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