Recent Book: “A Tendency to Question Things…”: The Police & the Law
| Author | R.A. Crabb |
| Date | 01 July 1980 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X8005300316 |
| Published date | 01 July 1980 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
"passport raids" and comment is made
on the large numbers of suspected
offenders in prison awaiting judgement.
The conclusions are drawn that there is
everyday harassment of black people by
the police. No mention is made of
reasons behind the setting up of the
Intelligence Unit such as the ever
increasing numbers ofillegal immigrants
or overstayers in this country and the
problems they cause.
The review is of interest to those police
officers who like to know what the other
side isthinking. Some useful information
has been collected, but the reader must be
prepared to think hard about the other
side of the story and one hopes reach
conclusions which differ from those
presented. "MOLE"
THE FIRST OBJECT. . ."
JOH~
BURROWS.
PAUL
EKBLOM
AND
KEVIN
HEAl.:
Crime Prevention and the Police.
Home Office Research Study No. 55. H.M.S.O. £1.75.
This booklet, in fact, brings together
two studies. The first was concerned with
the security of motor vehicles and was
conducted in the Devon and Cornwall
area and the other with the problems
resulting from truancy in the Avon and
Somerset force area.
They are detailed and extremely
valuable as a tool of management.
Basically, they both show the same
thing - your campaign is only as good as
the co-operation you manage to elicit
from your audience.
In the first case, can you convince the
car owners of the danger of losing their
vehicle and in the second, can you obtain
the co-operation
ofthe
children's parents
- an unlikely feat!
The research was first reported in an
article in THE POLICE
JOURNAL
by
Dr. R.V.G. Clarke and Mr. K.H.
Heal-
entitled "Police Effectiveness in Dealing
With Crime" (volume LII page 24).
AEDILIS
"A TENDENCY TO QUESTION THINGS..
:'
CHARLES
WEGG·PROSSER:
The Police &The Law.
It's Your Law series, Second Edition, Oyez Publishing. £3.50.
This is such an enormous subject that
to be able to compress it
injust
over 200
small pages is a major achievement in
itself. It iswritten by a solicitor practising
in London and might, perhaps, have
been better entitled "The Metropolitan
Police and the Law". Its strength lies in
its historical approach; for example, the
D.P.P. is an offshoot of the Treasury
Solicitor's Office.
There are other small gems which
twinkle through the pages; for example,
did you know that warrants issued in
Scotland may be executed in England
and Wales without being "backed" by a
local magistrate; contra Isle of Man,
Channel Islands or Northern Ireland?
For the proper regulation of society's
affairs adherence to the rule of law is still
vitally important; a worrying feature,
however, even in 1962 at the time of the
285
Willink Commission, was a lessening of
respect for authority - for the rule oflaw
if you like - and a tendency to question
things that in earlier times were accepted
without question. This is the theme
which forms the core of the book and
which is inescapablein any treatise which
deals with society's rules and the body
charged with the enforcement of them.
There is interest here for the policeman
particularly the pages on complaints,
conductand discipline; for the layman on
what principles dictate aprosecution and
for the lawyer who, if he is perceptive,
will notice one or two matters need up-
dating. Still, after 26th September,
reputed to be the date for the signing of
the Report of the Royal Commission on
Criminal Procedure, several textbooks
will need revision. Good value for £3.50.
R.A. CRABB
Police Journal
Ju~1'
1980
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