Current Developments in Police Accountability
| Date | 01 April 2002 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201830206600210 |
| Published date | 01 April 2002 |
| Author | Kiron Reid |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Current
Developments
in
Police
Accountability
Kiron Reid*
Abstract
This article provides an overview of recent
and
current
develop-
ments affecting police accountability in England
and
Wales. The article
also highlights key features of
the
government's police reform agenda,
including legislation
that
is likely in
the
medium
term. The Police Act 1996
consolidated changes to
the
traditional 'tripartite' system of police
accountability
but
change has continued rapidly thereafter. The article
explains
the
role of
the
National Crime Squad
and
National Criminal
Intelligence Service
and
the
increasing importance of Europo!. These are
likely to become of even greater importance post-Ll September 2001.
Other
national developments such as changes to
the
military police,
British Transport Police
and
proposals for an independent system of police
complaints are also evaluated.
There have
been
major changes in police accountability in
the
1990s
that
have led to more national influence
and
more national control over
policing in England
and
Wales
than
everbefore. The traditional tripartite
structure of accountability of Police Authority, Home Secretary
and
Chief Constable has
been
transformed by a shift in balance giving
the
Home Secretary greater powers,
and
seeing the development of statu-
tory national police structures for
the
first time, while at the same time
allowing a
number
of innovative
and
useful initiatives at local level. The
many
pieces of legislation overtook most legal commentators
with
the
pace of change
and
leading academics have only recently caught up by
analysing
the
impact of these changes. This article will start by outlining
changes in police accountability in the 1990s, giving the key sources
that
now
cover
that
period,
and
then
look at the recent
and
current
develop-
ments
that
will alter the traditional structure further. The
author
will
conclude by making some predictions
about
jurisdiction, European
developments
and
trends in police complaints
and
civil litigation. While
giving an overview of the field,
many
of the specific examples are from
Merseyside. Garland highlights the contrast
between
'broad general-
ization
and
the
specification of empirical particulars'
and
notes
that
'[s]weeping accounts of
the
big picture can be adjusted
and
revised by
more focused case studies
that
add empirical specificity
and
local detail'.'
Adopting Garland's reasoning it is hoped that readers will benefit from
some local examples, while having the constitutional framework
and
the
sources to research the detailed analyses of the structures
that
do
exist. This article will argue
that
despite greater central influence
and
*Lecturer in Law, University of Liverpool. Criminal Justice Unit.
Thanks to Darren Harris
LLB
for a
number
of the references contained in this
article, especially relating
to
New York and consultation with the public.
Thank
you to Michelle Aris
LLB
for research assistance, especially suggestions on
drafting. I am grateful to Stephen Cooper for technical and information
technology support.
D. Garland, The Culture
of
Control (OUP: Oxford, 200 I) Preface vii. See generally at
vii-ix.
172
Current Developments in
Police
Accountability
control,
and
supra-national developments
that
are outside of
the
struc-
ture
of accountability altogether,
there
are
now
greater opportunities for
individual citizens to
'have
their say' over policing matters
and
that
a
key emphasis of recent
government
policy allows for greater local
accountability
and
encourages
the
non-traditional forms of police ac-
countability promoted by Lord Scarman in his seminal report 20 years
ago.'
The
changing
governance
of
the
police
The English model has always
been
of local police forces
and
local police
accountability. The Police Act 1964 replaced 120 forces by 43 (the
smallest being
the
City of London force)
and
each
force covers
one
or
more
counties. However, policing style has always
been
controversial
and
continues to be so. Pauline Clare, Chief Constable of Lancashire
Police,
who
was
the
first female Chief Constable in
the
country,
summed
up
the
paradox:
I am not convinced that Dixon of Dock Green ever existed. We have this
romantic image that police officers clipped people round the ears for
stealing apples. But if you look at why police officers were introduced it
was
to
prevent serious disorder, wasn't it? So there has always been friction
between the police and members of the public.'
The tripartite structure of police accountability, as balanced
between
the
local Police Authority, Home Secretary
and
police force Chief Constable,
was established by
the
Police Act 1964. This system is described by
Professor Nicola Padfield as
'curious'-in
fact it reflects
the
traditional
British constitutional doctrine of separation of powers.' Police account-
ability, as opposed to police powers, is
now
governed by
the
Police Act
1996. Throughout the 1980s 'non-traditional' forms of police account-
ability developed as well. Lay visitors at
the
police
station-members
of
the
local
community
who
carry
out
independent
spot checks of police
detention
facilities-were
introduced following
the
Scarman Report."
Section 106 of the PACE Act 1984 required consultation
with
the
local
community
(see
now
s. 96 of 1996 Act), usually
done
by holding local
Police
and
CommunityPorums.? These are
open
publicmeetings chaired
by a
member
of
the
Police Authority,
'independent'
of
the
police. There
2 The
Brixton
Disorders
10-12 April 1981:
Report
of an Inquiry by the Rt.
Hon.
the Lord
Scarman
OBE.
Cmnd
8427 (HMSO: London. 1981) 46. 93.
3
Observer
Lifemagazine. 30 July 1995. 8.
4 N. Padfield.
Text
and
Materials
on the Criminal
Justice
Process
(Butterworths: London.
1995) 35. For an overview of the topic.
with
some
thought-provoking
conclusions.
see S. Jones.
Criminology
(Butterworths: London. 1998) ch. 1. See also D. Wilson.
J. Ashton
and
D. Sharp. What
Everyone
Should KnowAbout the
Police
(Blackstone:
London. 2001).
5 For background. see M. Weatheritt
and
C. Vieira. Lay
Visiting
to
Police
Stations.
Home Office Research Study 188 (Home Office: London, 1998); J. Alderson, 'The
Police' in E. Stockdale
and
S. Casale (eds)
Criminal
Justice
Under
Stress
(Blackstone:
London. 1992) 17-19; S. Bailey. D. Harris
and
B. Jones.
Civil
Liberties:
Cases
and
Materials.
4th
edn
(Butterworths: London. 1995) 41.
6 See R. Morgan. 'Policing by
Consent-Legitimating
the
Doctrine' in R. Morgan
and
D. Smith (eds)
Coming
to
Terms
with
Policing
(1989); Bailey. Harris
and
Jones.
above n. 5 at 37.
173
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