Operational Independence — Myth or Reality?
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X9106400407 |
| Published date | 01 October 1991 |
| Author | Eric J. Hewitt |
| Date | 01 October 1991 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ERICJ.HEWITTM.A.(ECON) B.A.(HONS)
Superintendent,
GreaterManchester
Police
OPERATIONAL INDEPENDENCE
- MYTH OR REALITY?
Selectedfrom a group of essays submitted whilst attending the Senior Command
Course at Bramshill.
Introduction
The question of control over the police has been the focus of public
attention since the very inception of the modern police service over one
hundredand sixty years ago. The issue springs from a traditional concern
to limit the powers of the state and protect the freedom and interests of the
individual citizen.
In today's climate the debate has been fuelled by a whole plethora
of
publishedarticles, 'causes celebres' and specific events and issues dealing
with corruption, suppression ofevidence, conspiracy and brutality. Against
a backcloth of escalating crime, declining detection rates and unprecedented
government spending on the police, traditional concerns have given way
to arigorous questioning ofpolice ethics, function, structures and leadership
qualities.
Underpinning all of this is the crucial issue
of
accountability and
whether today's police are simply "out of control".
Whilst considerable research has shown that the process
of
discretion,
culture and immediate situational pressures impact the outcomes of police
practices and law enforcement; the policies, objectives and structures of
policing are so crucially determined by chief constables that their
constitutional position is at the hub of the debate. According to the
summing-up of the Final Report of the Royal Commissionon the Police
1962, "the problemof control can be restated as the problem of controlling
chief constables."!
But what is this so-called "constitutional position"? During the
recent Miners' Dispute, disagreements between anumber of police
authorities and their chief constables came to a head in July 1984, when
the South Yorkshire Police Authority passed aresolution blocking funds
for policingpicket lines. The Attorney Generalrespondedimmediatelyby
initiating proceedings claiming that the chief constable had sole
responsibility for the operational control of his force. The police authority
withdrew. They had never, they said, intended to take away the chief
constable's exclusive operational authority.
Both parties to this argument appeared to agree about the crucial
issue, that a police authority was not entitled to give operational orders to
its chief constable. This doctrine
of
"operational independence" has
become the conventionalconstitutionalwisdom. It gives chiefconstables
l.Final Report of the Royal Commission on the Police 1962 para.102.
October 1991 321
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