Licensed Premises: Some Hints on Inspection and Supervision
Author | Frederick Pickard |
DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X4802100208 |
Published date | 01 April 1948 |
Date | 01 April 1948 |
Subject Matter | Article |
122
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
policeman is wrong or right for all policemen. With a view to obtaining
guidance, and in no carping spirit, the writer suggests that the time
is ripe for the appointment of another Royal Commission or the
implementation of the recommendations contained in the Report of
1929.
The
situation obviously calls for clarification.
As a tail-piece: it has been stated that on the first day's
10
per
cent. from greyhound totalisator betting the Treasury was enabled to
net approximately
£250,000,
at which rate more than
£14,000,000
will
go to the Treasury in a whole year. Perhaps it is the law which needs
altering after all
1*
Licensed Premises: Some Hints on
Inspection and Supervision
By
INSPECTOR
FREDERICK
PICKARD
Birmingham City Police
THE inspection and supervision of premises licensed for the sale
of intoxicating liquor form an important
part
of a senior police
officer's duty, and the Police are expressly authorised by statute to enter
such premises.
The
Royal Commission on Licensing (England and
Wales)
1929-31,
discussed this power, and their Report states that
according to the evidence given before them, it was not quite clear that
the power of entry is, as it is generally thought to be, altogether un-
qualified or whether an officer must have some reasonable ground for
suspecting that the law is being, or is about to be, infringed before he
may exercise the right.
The
practice of many police forces, however,
is to conduct routine visits to licensed premises within their juris-
diction.
In
some places such systematic inspection does not find
favour in the eyes of licensees.
The
Commission, however, regarded
it as a valuable element in the effective administration of the law and
recommended that any doubts as to the legality of such inspection
should be removed by amendment of the statute,
but
this has not been
done. Inspection of this kind is normally carried out by uniformed
officers and the Commission approved this procedure as opposed to
visits by officers in plain clothes.
A casual survey of, or an idle walk through, licensed premises is
of little value; in fact the officer who intends to carry
out
an inspection
in such a manner would do well to stop away; for if infringements are
*
The
writer acknowledges the use of extracts from a
contributed
article in The
Justice
of
the Peace,
January
15th, 1944, at page 27.
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