POLICE AND PUBLIC ORDER
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1985.tb00596.x |
| Published date | 01 December 1985 |
| Date | 01 December 1985 |
| Author | JOHN C. ALDERSON |
POLICE
AND
PUBLIC
ORDER
JOHN
C.
ALDERSON
Does economic deterioration in a developed country such as Great Britain inevitably mean
increasing disorder and lawlessness? How would the forces of law and order react
to
authoritarian governments of the political left and right? These two questions and the
likely answers form the first part of this essay.
The Royal Commission on the Police
(1962)
faced the question
of
either retaining a
police system based on local government or recommending
its
replacement by a national
police force under the Home Secretary. With one powerful dissension they
chose
the former.
They claimed
to
have solved the problem
of
democratic accountability of the police, but
in recent years cracks have begun
to
appear in the system. The vexed question of the
prospects of schism between a chief constable and his police authority committee is
examined.
Finally,
it
is suggested the British governmental institutions, including Parliament itself,
are insufficiently democratic, and that a Bill
of
Rights protecting civil liberties is long
overdue.
The economic deterioration in developed countries indicates the onset of a new
way of life which would have to be imposed by a ruthless authoritarian
government.
(Observer
4 August 1974)
When the late Arnold Toynbee expressed these views in 1974 he did
so
at a
time when the oil crisis, following the Arab/Israeli war, had severely rocked the
British economy, along with others. The main point
of
Toynbee’s statement for
the purpose under consideration
is
that economic deterioration in an advanced
society adumbrates ruthless authoritarian government. In extrapolating that con-
tention one is bound to envisage the creation
of
a police
arm
able to enforce ruthless
authoritarian policies, and for the purpose
of
this dissertation it does not matter
whether ’ruthless authoritarian’ policies are those of the political Left or the Right.
Could the mining dispute
of
1984-85, with all its implications, be the harbinger
of what is to come? Clearly the economic deterioration
of
some coal mines and
the implications for the workers affected might find themselves repeated in other
manufacturing industries, for example in the motor car industry.
If
the wasting
asset
of
North Sea oil were to result in costly imports, as it runs down, further
stresses would accrue. The main key to any answer for the future state of public
John
Alderson is Visiting Professor
of
Police Studies at the University of Strathclyde; he was Chief
Constable
of
Devon and Comwall,
1973-82
Public Administration Vol.
63
Winter
1985 (435-444)
0
1985
Royal Institute
of
Public Administration
ISSN
0033-3298 $3.00
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