Recent Book: “The Public Image”: The Police and the Public
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6203500615 |
| Author | Frank Elmes |
| Published date | 01 November 1962 |
| Date | 01 November 1962 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
"THE
PUBLIC IMAGE"
C. H.
ROLPH
(Ed.): The Police and the Public. An inquiry. Heinemann. 30s.
NOISE
IS
COMPARATIVE.
Fire a pistol after abattleship has loosed a broadside
and the chances are the smaller crack will go unnoticed. This may be the fate of
The Police and the Public which has the misfortune to follow closely on the final
report of the Royal Commission on the Police. Nevertheless the publishers'
claim
that
the book is .. an important and entertaining
discussion"
of a much
neglected problem is accurate enough, though discussion is hardly the word for
eight essays correlated only through the summing up of the editor, C. H. Rolph.
Entertaining is certainly descriptive of the contribution by
Frank
Norman, a
former criminal turned writer, with a gift of words which authors of the tougher
sort of detective fiction cannot fail to envy. Perhaps for this very reason it is
impossible to take Norman's criticisms, and occasional unintentional praise, of
the police seriously. More quietly amusing and certain to rouse sympathy in
the breasts of policemen (the reaction of the public is less certain) is the chapter
by Edwin Brock who served as a constable in London for seven years before
abandoning a police career in favour of writing. John Chandos, another writer,
claims the distinction of having been unlawfully arrested. He gives a sober
account of his encounter in the small hours with a young constable near Hyde
Park Corner, his decision not to .. co-operate ", his stay at a police station, and
the subsequent slightly clumsy attempts of the police to placate him. Not much
is added to
our
knowledge of police-public relations; it is sufficiently well known
that
preventive legislation and action are always potentially troublesome to both
police and public unless the attitude of both is perfection itself.
Christopher Williams, the Chief Constable of Huntingdonshire, and William
Gay of the British Transport Commission Police, present competently the point
of view of the police. Gay looks at the humanities of the situation of the man on
the beat whilst Christopher Williams' approach is more formal. Indeed, his
essay was originally published in the Criminal Law Review and might have
benefited from a re-write with a broader-based audience in mind. A curious
feature is Mr. Williams' view of organized public relations. He asks and leaves
unanswered the questions: .. What is public opinion? Where is it to be found?
What
is it
worth?
Whose business is it to do something about itT' It is difficult
to believe that answers are impossible to find. No publicity expert or pollstercould
possibly be so much in the dark as Mr. Williams' rhetorical questions suggest.
In fierce and implacable opposition to the police is
c.G.L.
Du Cann, aLondon
barrister. There is something very disturbing
about
Mr. Du
Cann's
advocate's
vision of the police. Something is plainly wrong here and it cannot only be the
police who are the subject of accusation and complaint. Knowledgeable people
may feel the case against" the police to be sadly, almost recklessly, overstated;
what the public will make of it is anybody's guess. There is certainly scope,
though this is not the time or place, for interesting theorizing on what causes
some lawyers to see the police jet black whereas the majority are in favour of a
lightish grey.
We are left with two contributions which are the core of the book. P. M. W.
Voelcker, a sociologist, gives the result of a survey carried out among working-
class youth. He makes an interesting distinction between individual and group
reactions to policemen and police action.
It
is in the groups where the most
extreme opinions are fostered and it is group attitudes which lead on to lawbreak-
ing and other trouble between teen-agers and the police. Read in conjunction
with the facts supplied to the Royal Commission by the Central Office of Informa-
tion, Mr. Voelcker's chapter certainly sheds light in dark places. Colin MacInnes
takes a wider look. His essay
commences"
There are criminals, law enforcement
officers, and the community they plunder or protect. Does the cause of
our
ills
lie in these groups directly involved with crime or in society itself?" Only one
answer is possible when the problem which the book purports to examine is posed
in
that
way. Criminals and police methods are plainly symptoms of society's
health or ill-health and Mr. MacInnes develops this theme in a satisfyingly
objective manner. He sums up:
"anyone
...
who doesn't understand that morally
we're all in the nick
together-should
leave well alone, and watch a crime serial
on the telly as an alternative
occupation".
The tragedy of police-public relations
433 November-December 1962
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