Round the World
| Published date | 01 December 1967 |
| Date | 01 December 1967 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6704001215 |
| Subject Matter | Round the World |
In his review Mr. Muir draws heavily on Mr. Critchley's book
for passages based on the 19th century advocates of nationaliza-
tion to show that the watch committees of small boroughs were
unsuitable police authorities. I do not see how he can use this
material to show that the new regional authorities would also
be unsuitable. I do not see why the views of someone who spoke
in 1853, should be regarded as conclusive evidence as to the best
system of policing in 1975, even if he was a chief constable - as
Job was told by one of his comforters, great men are not always
wise.
It
is indeed in relation to the new regional authorities
that
we may see emerging before long that Mr. Muir's case is at its
weakest.
The
rest of my article might be a rehash of old argu-
ments,
but
we cannot determine whether regional authorities
should be police authorities until we know what they will be like,
and the matter cannot therefore be regarded as closed. Indeed,
if we have regional authorities we shall be looking round for
powers to give them, for the whole idea will be to pass as much
power as possible down to them and to take as much as possible
away from Whitehall.
The
Police Service will be deluding itself
if it thinks it can stand aloof from this process and prevent rude
hands being laid on the structure it has devised for itself, unless
it has some convincing arguments to put forward.
No, the debate is not yet over - or at any rate it ought not to
be. I am sure that so skilled acontroversialist as Mr. Muir would
not have said what he did about my article unless he felt he could
refute its arguments. Will he now present his refutation so that
others may judge between us?
•
Round
the
World
WOMEN'S WAYS
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Bulletin reports awoman of 57
who, after her arrest, estimated
that
she had received approximately
$100,000 from passing fraudulent cheques in a period of two years. She
received a sentence of two years' imprisonment. The woman admitted
possessing her own printing press
for
the preparation of the cheques.
Another
report in the same journal concerns a young woman who was
found to have 50 bags of heroin concealed beneath her wig .
The
removal
of the wig during the search so incensed the young lady that she attacked
the searching officers and during the struggle
that
followed a further 50
bags of
heroin"
cascaded from the bosom of her dress ".
586 December 1967
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