The Law and Order Issue and Police-Public Relations
| Date | 01 June 1971 |
| Author | Paul R. Wilson,Duncan Chappell |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587100400207 |
| Published date | 01 June 1971 |
112 AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (June, 1971): 4, 2
The
Law
and
Order Issue
and
Police-Public Relations
PAUL R. WILSON*
AND
DUNCAN
CHAPPELL**
Introduction
AT a
time
of widespread concern
about
the
state
of
crime
in
the
Australian
community,
about
the
student
"problem"
and
about
civil disorder
generally,
the
topic of law
and
order
has
become
an
issue of increasing
political
interest
and
controversy. Public
alarm
has
been
reflected in aggres-
sive
law
and
order election platforms,
with
emphasis
upon
the
expansion of
law
enforcement
agencies like
the
police, increasing
penalties
for a
host
of
offences,
and
creating
new types of public
order
crimes.
It
is
with
the
police, or
more
speci.fically, police-public relations
that
this
paper
is concerned.
For
if
the
law
and
order
issue resolves itself b'y
way of new legislation to deal
with
students
or
other
groups
that
threaten
the
established order, it will be
the
police who will
have
the
difficult
and
unpleasant
task
of enforcing
the
"get
tough"
legislation. While
this
has
many
social consequences,
there
is one aspect
which
particularly
concerns
us
and
this
relates to
the
possible effects
that
any
law
and
order legislation
will
have
on police-public relations.
In
the
context
of
this
issue, we have
but
one supposition. This is,
that
by
increasing
both
legislation
and
police powers
in
the
delicate
and
sensi-
tive
area
of
protest
movements, police-public
relations
will suffer
irretriev-
able damage. While we
cannot
empirically
validate
this
supposition, w'e
feel
it
is a justifiable one given
the
inadequate
training
of most police
forces in
the
area
of
protest
control, given
the
fact
that
most
Australian
policemen
are
already grossly over-worked
and
given
the
fact
they
are
appropriated
the
most
onerous of
tasks
allotted to a civil
servant
and
expect to
perform
these
tasks
in
conditions of
pay
and
work which
fall
well below
the
standards
implicit in
the
Australian
traditions
of wage
and
industrial
[usttce.!
This
latter
point
has
relevance
for
police-public
relations
because,
in
our
experience, a
bitter
and
dissatisfied police force is
hardly
likely to deal
with
the
public -
particularly
protestors
--
with
restraint
and
understanding.
Rather,
we suspect
that
any
aggressive feelings
generated
within
policemen by
their
adverse working conditions will be projected
onto
those who
"disturb"
law
and
order.
We do
not
deny
that
various groups in
the
community
will differentially
react,
and
be affected by, law
and
order legislation. Recent experience
in
*M.A. (Canterbury),
Senior
Lecturer
in Sociology,
University
of Queensland.
** B.A., LL.B. (Tasmania), Ph.D. (Cambridge),
Professor
of Criminal Justice,
State
University
of New York, Albany.
1.
These
observations
are
discussed
in
detail
in D. Chappell
and
P. R. Wilson,
The
Police
and
the
Public
in
Australia
and
New
Zealand,
Brisbane,
University
of
Queensland
Press,
1969.
See
also
D. Chappell
and
P. R
Wilson,
"Police
in
Australia",
C.A.B., Vol. 47,
No.7,
1970,
pp. 99-111.
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