Recent Book: A Look at/from the other Side: The Bar on Trial
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7905200422 |
| Date | 01 October 1979 |
| Published date | 01 October 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
police services in metropolitan America.
The key to understanding the material
presented
in
this
book
is
the
STANDARD
METROPOLITAN
STATISTICAL
AREA,
hereafter
known as S.M.S.A. This is a designation
specified by the United States Bureau of
Census and is used to identify in a
systematical way metropolitan areas in
the United States. Eighty S.M.S.A.'s
across America were chosen for the
research in this book. All of them have
less than 1.5 million population and are
inside one State.
This hook isthe first report of research
findings. It explains how police agencies
define among themselves the work of
police metropolitan areas. The pages are
full of detailed descriptions of the
services provided by the police agencies
from Oregon to Florida, California to
New York. There are chapterson general
patrol, traffic, criminal investigation,
training and auxilliary service.The most
striking feature of the report is the
written confirmation of many different
approaches by the various organisations.
Training provides a good example of
these differences. Twenty-one States
prescribe minimum training standards,
but the requirement in Georgia is 114
hours while the Pennsylvania recruit
receives480 hours. Only one third of the
departments that require entry level
training made a requirement for that
training to be held during the first six
months of service. The reader does not
have to struggle with jargon although a
glossary assists the reader to pick his way
through some technical definitive terms.
The text is punctuated by a number of
comparison tables which are easy to
follow.
This report is a descriptive one. It
tends to be irritating at times that
nothing is said about the quality of the
various services provided. ·On the other
hand, this is the first part of a long
research project. The assumption is that
more will be said about the quality in
later volumes. The Authors point out
that the book is directed to assist people
"know the territory". They have
succeeded in this objective. M.W.
ALOOK
AT/FROM
THE OTHER
SIDE
Edited by
ROBERT
HAZELL.
The Bar on Tria/.
Quartet Books. £1.95 (paperback)
To the man in the street and even to the
policeman in the street, the organisation,
principles and practice ofthe English Bar
remain an enigma. Of all our institutions
the Bar is one of the most conservative,
and hitherto very little in the way of
constructive critisism by members of the
Bar is available in literature which can
be readily assimilated and understood by
outsiders with curiosity for greater
understanding. This collection of
essa~s
by eight young barristers attempts to lift
the veil.
The essays range from an introduction
to the Bar and to the Inns of Court which
would well repay reading by police
officers of all ranks. The chapter on the
Criminal Bar is of particular interest to
police readers. Surprisingly, the general
standard of advocacy in the higher
criminal courts is regarded as inferior to
those in the civil courts. There is,
however, no shortage of public money
available in criminal cases.
It
is recorded
that in 1971/72 legal aid incriminal cases
amounted to £91
/2million, whereas by
1975/76 the amount spent on legal aid
had risen to £33 million. Given the
increase in crime and the increased
number of crimes detected by the police,
it can be surmised that this rather
generous expenditure on legal aid will
continue to rise. Both prosecuting and
October 1979
defence lawyers are now much more
public servants in the sense that they are
remunerated from public funds.
Plea bargaining is all too briefly
mentioned. Most police officers are
aware of the prevailance of doing a deal
which does not always have the
defendant's best interests at hearl. Regret
is freely expressed in this essay that the
ability of the Bar to adapt is open to
doubt.
The problems of women at the Bar are
in many ways a mirror of the problems of
entering into all professions, not least
that of the police. A special plea is made
for the contribution which women can
bring to the Bar (like their sisters in the
Police) with a greater awareness of
people's feelings, sense of humility and a
genuine desire to help their clients rather
than to impress them. Women barristers
it is said can make a separate
contribution and that the Bar will be the
loser if women are forced to behave like
men. This must have been said before
in a number of professional contexts.
It is not surprising that the question of
independence of the Bar or fusion with a
solicitor's branch of the legal profession
should occupy a full essay unto itself.
This is a topic upon which none other
than Lord Goodman himself has had
much to say and one gets the impression
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