ENHANCING THE ROLE OF POLICE COMMITTEES
| Date | 01 March 1983 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1983.tb00505.x |
| Author | D. E. REGAN |
| Published date | 01 March 1983 |
NOTES
AND
SURVEYS
97
ENHANCING THE ROLE
OF
POLICE COMMITTEES
The flow of books, pamphlets, reports and articles, (not to mention radio and
television programmes) concerning the control of the police in Britain has reached
a torrent in the last few years. These items vary widely in character
-
official and
unofficial, historical and topical, analytical and polemical, legal and behavioural,
liberal and Marxist. They exhibit a certain similarity, however, in that almost all
of
them criticize the status
quo.
Undoubtedly some of the anxieties they express and the criticisms they level are
justified. There is a good case for making certain changes in the way the police are
administered. Nevertheless, these works generally neglect the considerable scope
for improvement that exists within the present system, even if it were left
unchanged. In particular local police committees could use their
existing
powers
more effectively to maintain democratic control over their police forces. Indeed as
is explained below, some police committees have adopted a more informed and
active stance in the last few years; but others are still not exploiting the potential
they possess.
The Distinctiveness
of
Police Administration
Policing is a highly unusual public service. It has several features which make it a
unique area of public administration. Three in particular affect democratic control:
the special arrangements for policing the Metropolis, the special position
of
police
committees, and the special constitutional position of the police themselves.
The Home Secretary is the police authority for the Metropolitan Police District
which covers the
GLC
area and extends beyond it in some places. Within this
extensive tract of territory there is no local responsibility for the police, save for a
square mile right in its centre where the City of London operates its own force.
Outside Greater London all English, Welsh and Scottish police forces involve local
responsibility. Such metropolitan/provincial differentiation
is
unique to the
police.
No
other service
is
bused
on local government outside the Metropolis, but
excludes
local government within it.
This differentiation is an accident of history. When the Metropolitan Police
were created in
1829
and then extended to roughly their present area of
jurisdiction in 1839, there was no local government unit with the size and
competence to take them on. Only the central government
could
have been made
responsible. Indeed the only powerful local authority then in the Metropolis, the
City of London, complicated matters by rejecting incorporation in the
Metropolitan Police District. Today, however, there
is
a local government unit
-
the
GLC
-
which is big enough to become the police authority for the Metropolis.
Many argue that it should; see for instance Straw
(1980),
Baldwin
&
Kinsey
(1982),
Association of Metropolitan Authorities
(1982).
The second distinctive feature
of
the police is the special position in local
government of police committees. Outside the Metropolis English and Welsh
forces are based on counties (thirty-one forces) or combinations of counties (ten
Public Administration
Vol.
61
Spring 1983 (97-110)
0
1983
Royal
Institute
of
Public
Administration
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