On Beat
| Published date | 01 March 1969 |
| Date | 01 March 1969 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6904200311 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ON
BEAT
The Cheshire constabulary's senior officers' dinner, held at Stockport
on January 22, the first time the dinner has been held outside Chester,
may prove to have been a significant occasion.
The guest of honour for the evening was Mr. H. A. Hetherington,editor
of the Guardian newspaper and a member of the 1962 Royal Commission
on the Police, who might be expected to have the "feel" of public opinion
on police matters. In proposing the toast of the Cheshire constabulary,
Mr. Hetherington made what appears to have been the first informed
unofficial comment on the National Police Computer, the plans for which
were outlined in the January issue
of
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
. Was itsignificant
that he found himself unable to
give unqualified support for the
project?There would, he predicted,
be "quite arumpus" when people
realized what this central computer
could do.
A significant occasion,perhaps: but a
friendly one too. Our picture shows
the Ch
ief
Constable
of
Cheshire, Mr.
H. Wat son,on the far left, with Mr. S .
Lawrence, H.M. Inspector
of
Con-
stabulary, beside him. The Bishop
of
Stockport is talking to Mr. W.
Kelsall, Assistant Chief Constable
of
Cheshire.
Mr. Hetherington referred to officialpronouncements,
and
in particular
to
that
of
Lord
Stonham, on the feasibility and advantages of such a
means
of
storing and disseminating information. But what has not been
said, Mr . Hetherington pointed out, was
that
as well as storing criminal
records
"the
computer can also store all kinds of information about
people with no criminal record, no reason for thinking they are suspects,
and no formal contact with the police".
Given the unit beat system, given the care with which information from
alert constables on their beats was being stored and collated, given that
anything which attracted their attention could legitimately be put in, and
given also all the information
that
might go in from the C.LD.,
"are
we
not well on the way to 1984?"
Personally, Mr. Hetherington confessed, he was
not
against it. The
balance
of
choice was delicate ; he did
not
much like the idea of people's
habits and movements being recorded
centrally-it
was an invasion of
privacy. But he liked even less the idea
that
every possible means of
fighting crime was not being used; that in an age when some criminals
were highly organized society might be handicapping itself in opposing
them.
"So although it troubles me a little that the Blackheath constable may
128 March 1969
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