Public Order

Published date01 October 1972
AuthorJonathan F. Brown
Date01 October 1972
DOI10.1177/0032258X7204500413
Subject MatterArticle
reduce considerably large-scale thefts and assist in the investiga-
tion of those which do take place.
The operation of a nationwide metal squad would obviously
necessitate a great deal of preliminary work, such as compiling
registers of metal manufacturers, metal dealers and itinerants,
also a system of recording stolen metal in detail, and planning
for the dissemination of this information as and when required.
Nevertheless, in due course, the man-hours of a squad speci-
alizing in metal would certainly be much less than the man-
hours spent at present by police officers who often do not have
either sufficient information to make inquiries in connexion with
metal thefts from other areas, or enough time to investigate cases
in their own.
The overriding advantage of such a squad would be in the
financial saving resulting from a decrease in the incidence of metal
thefts.
JONATHAN
F.
BROWN
Mr. Brown is Staff Tutor in Politics, Department of
Adult
Education, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Prior to his
present appointment he was a member of the academic staff of
the Police College, Bramshill.
PUBLIC ORDER
Though coherent, considered views of the Open University
and its work must inevitably be delayed for some years, the Uni-
versity has already produced much of interest.
It
has, for example,
produced video tapes
(TV.
programmes), tapes (radio pro-
grammes), scientific equipment (necessary for a science course
which demands home experimental work), books and correspond-
ence units published in book form. These may be of interest
and use for students, teachers and the general public who have
no contact with the university and its courses. Of these products
it may be, ironically in view of the political impetus which created
the Open University (remember Mr. Wilson's "University of the
Air"?), that the most important of these contributions is the com-
mission and production of the printed word.
The Open University correspondence volume on Public Order
was, of course, designed to link the multi media package of
television, radio and set books used for its second level course on
October
1972 330

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