Recent Book: US and Society or …: Police and Society
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7905200316 |
| Author | John Alderson |
| Published date | 01 July 1979 |
| Date | 01 July 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
It is easy to see the problems, but more
difficult to find and implement solutions.
The television organisations are vast, and
their operations complex; short of full-
scale, declared war there is no real case
for any sort of censorship or government
control. One of the striking features of
the conference was the vigour with which
senior representatives of the police and
security organisations advocated a
total
lack of limitation on the activity of
television camera crews. The more the
media are involved in actual incidents the
more likely they are to see them through
realistic eyes, rather than as simply a
confrontation between two extremes.
"Multiplicity
of
coverage
is a
contribution to public safety. The danger
lies in a narrow confined picture which
necessarily presents a limited point of
view." Again, there was some
support
at
the conference for additional legislation,
and frequent reference to the successful
proscription of the I. R.A. and its
associates in the Republic of Ireland. On
the other hand, many participants
warned of the dangers of additional
legislation which could not be enforced.
Ageneral feeling emerged that current
law should be applied more stringently,
and
that
the broadcasting authorities
should practice self-regulation more
conscientiously and consistently. Most
interesting were suggestions for the
establishment of some sort of general
archive on the lines
ofthe
British Museum
collection of books and newspapers, in
which the television organisation would
deposit transcriptions and recordings of
their programmes, or at least of those
dealing with news and current affairs, as
well as live discussions, documentaries
and
drama
productions. In this way
access by the public to the record of what
has been broadcast would be achieved
more regularly. It was further suggested
that such an archive should be
maintained by some sort of Council,
analogous to the Press Council, which
might have some of the functions of a
broadcasting Ombudsman, acting in
response to complaints and initiatives by
public groups and individuals. The
difficulties and uncertainties in such a
development would be manifold, but the
need for it was strongly felt.
This is certainly atract for the time.
Mirrored in the whole theme of
Television and Conflict are the perennial
problems of power
and
the public
interest, the balance between
order
and
individual
liberty,
the
shifting
relationship between the ambitions of
groups and the security of the state.
That
security is based above all on the loyalty
and underlying unity of the populace. If
such unity is weakened,
that
weakness
will be reflected in television, and
exaggerated by it. But if the unity holds
firm, that strength in
turn
willaffect what
appears on the television screen.
I. A. WATT
US
AND
SOCIETY OR
...
Edited by
DAVID
H.
BAYLEY:
Police
and
Society. Sage Publications
Hardback
£10. Paperback £4.95
This is a most interesting and wide
ranging collection of essays which
addresses its mind to the question
"how
does social context affect what the police
do?" This is one of the big questions of
the day and a serious effort to answer it is
long overdue. Cultural attitudes, habits,
expectations and tolerance of crime
levels all in one way or
another
have a
bearing on the way the police go
about
their duties and in particular on the way
they enforce laws, or refrain from
enforcing laws. Police professionalism
has blunted the imagination to a great
extent and the modern echelon of senior
police officers tends to favour police
solutions to policing problems
rather
than
local cultural participation in such
solutions. As the
author
says
"if
it is a
mistake to assume
that
police institutions
operate independently of their social
environment, it is equally mistaken to
assume
that
they are shaped entirely by
forces outside them". The new found
learning
and
power
particularly
July 1979
technological power of the modern
police manager may well be brought to
bear on society in order to influence
social change. The
book
goes a long way
towards encouraging an understanding
that the modern police force can both be
shaped by its environment and helped to
shape its environment. The essays fall
into three distinct groups. First they are
descriptive papers examining particular
events
of
historical
significance.
Secondly they are papers which tend to
draw
conclusions from historical events
and produce'evidence
that
to some extent
confirms the validity of the historians'
observations, and thirdly a
group
of
papers
which
tends
to
generate
theoretical propositions.
This is a scholarly book and full of
high
quality,
commentary
and
exposition. It is a valuableaddition to the
literature on fresh dimensions of the
explanation
of
phenomena
of
democratic policing.
JOHN
ALDERSON
297
To continue reading
Request your trial