Review: Advising a Suspect in the Police Station, 5th Edition, Changing Policing, Revolution Not Evolution
| Author | Owen Kelly,Mike Fanning,Rob R. Jerrard |
| Published date | 01 April 2004 |
| Date | 01 April 2004 |
| DOI | 10.1350/pojo.77.2.188.39122 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
ROB R. JERRARD
Reviews Editor
www.rjerrard.co.uk
REVIEWS
ADVISING A SUSPECT IN THE POLICE STATION, 5TH
EDITION
Anthony Edwards
London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2003
ISBN: 0421849800; price: £30
Reviewed by Mike Fanning
There cannot be a criminal defence lawyer who does not know
of Anthony Edwards, through his column in the Law Society
Gazette, his seminars under the CLT brand, his vociferousness
on the future provision of a criminal defence service (in his role
as LSC commissioner) or his prominence as a London criminal
practitioner.
As one of those who attends Mr Edwards’s superb seminars,
and thus familiar with the ‘bare bones’ approach to course notes
adopted by him (the flesh being in the seminar), I was nonethe-
less surprised at the limited size of this book: 145 pages of A5.
Those who regularly attend the police station must have
immediate access to the core materials that cover all possible
scenarios likely to be encountered in a busy duty shift. Person-
ally, I always take an up-to-date copy of Zander (incorporating
the Codes of Practice and PACE), last year’s copy of Black-
stone’s and one of the various police station advisers’ books as a
ready-reckoner.
So where does this book fit in? Few of us have the type of
brain that can store the entire encyclopedia of criminal law
resources required to do the job effectively. What we need is a
core base of knowledge, and/or immediate access to a summary
of that core (for those graveyard shifts when the adviser’s brain
wants to shut down, but the professional burglar is wide awake
and wants to be interviewed!).
Advising a Suspect in the Police Station aims to fit that
particular requirement, and does so in a generally effective way.
It is a book that is not over-encumbered with detail and sets out
succinctly the key considerations in providing effective advice to
a detainee. It is fully cross-referenced to key provisions of the
188 The Police Journal, Volume 77 (2004)
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