The Promotion Exams
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6303601010 |
| Author | J. Daniel Devlin |
| Published date | 01 October 1963 |
| Date | 01 October 1963 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
SUPERINTENDENT
J.
DANIEL
DEVLIN,
LL.B.
Of
the Southend-on-Sea Constabulary and the Directing
Staff
of
the
Police College.
The tenth
of
a series
of
articles
of
interest to examination candidates
and all concerned with training.
TH.~
PRO~IOTION
.~X,,"MS
x...
BREAKING
OFFENCES
Almost without exception, promotion examinations include a
question on at least one of the breaking offences, and if a candidate
is wise he can earn a good many marks by anticipating such a question
and attempting it. A word
of
warning, however. All police officers
are conversant, indeed familiar, with the law on these offences and
there is a great danger
that
candidates will persuade themselves that
they have a sufficiently wide knowledge to enable them to answer a
question without difficulty. This attitude is foolish in the extreme.
A glance at previous question papers will convince any student
that the examiners very properly expect a detailed and extensive
knowledge of the subject; and in any case, since one can almost
guarantee a question on this branch of the law, he would be most
unwise who failed to take the opportunity to learn it very carefully
indeed.
Most of the questions consists of a piece of narrative which tells
the careful reader: (i) the time of the commission
of
the offence;
(ii) whether breaking occurred; (iii) whether the accused entered;
(iv) the kind of building concerned; (v) whether and, if so, what
intent was possessed by the accused; and (vi) whether a felony was
committed. All the breaking offences consist of some or all
of
these ingredients, and a candidate who has learned the subject well
need only apply the facts to the offences to discover which is
appropriate. He should be prepared, of course, to argue doubtful
cases and discuss the arguments for or against aparticular decision.
The subject is contained in ss. 24 to 27 of the Larceny Act, 1916,
and because these are short and easy to learn, it is recommended
that they be committed to memory. Candidates will find that the
learning and understanding of the subject will be greatly simplified
by a study of the table at p. 518. When it is thought
that
it has
been committed to memory it should be written
out
without reference
to the original or to books or notes. Doubtless some difficulty
will be experienced at first,
but
if the process is repeated several
times it will soon be firmly fixed in the mind. This will be an excellent
October 1963 516
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