The Scope and Functions of Local and Central Control in Police Administration
| Published date | 01 October 1932 |
| Date | 01 October 1932 |
| Author | W. R. Jones |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3200500407 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Scope and Functions
of
Local and
Central Control in Police Administration
By INSPECTOR W. R. JONES
Birkenhead Borough Police
[This is
the
Winning Essay of the King's Gold Medal Essay
Competition of 1931]'
Introductory.
IN the eyes of many of the leading nations of the world,
it may seem somewhat paradoxical that the British people,
while retaining a genuine and deep-rooted affection and
admiration for the Crown, are so inordinately jealous of their
rights and liberties, both personal and local.
The
constitution and development of an effective police
system in a country seised with such a passionate love of
freedom and self-direction and control, has presented to those
responsible a task involving the constant exercise of a high
degree of tact and diplomacy.
A fear which was widely expressed on the advent of the
modern police force a century ago was that the newly ap-
pointed
'peace
officers' were to be constituted on lines
comparable to a Continental State Gendarmerie, oppressively
autocratic in the exercise of their powers and entirely in-
dependent of democratic control.
The
institution-or
perhaps one might term it, the
accident-of
local autonomy as a fundamental principle in the
appointment and control of police, was the factor which helped
from the first utterly to dispel this apprehension, and gradually
to establish a sense of close personal relationship between
local inhabitants and the protectors of their lives and property.
From this has grown the popularity and inherent strength of
our police system. 518
LOCAL
AND
CENTRAL
CONTROL
SIg
The
eventual introduction of a limited measure of State
control was inevitable in an institution so national in character
as the police,
but
the introduction was sufficiently long delayed
and was so gradual,
that
the antipathy of the Briton to any-
thing savouring of bureaucracy was not unduly aroused.
The
Metropolitan force, for reasons hereafter described,
was the only exception to autonomous rule.
This
did not
mean that Whitehall was given carte
blanche
for the imposition
of a new police system upon the capital city without regard to
public opinion.
The
supreme executive control was en-
trusted to a Minister of the Crown, who was directly answer-
able to the House of Commons for every detail of administra-
tion, adirect link being thus established between the citizens
of the Metropolis on the one hand and their police on the
other, by means of a popularly elected chamber meeting in
the heart of London, of which approximately one-sixth of
the members represented London constituencies.
The
modern British police system has been built up
very gradually on an excellent foundation.
It
is prudent,
therefore, before drawing attention to problems which un-
questionably exist at the present time, to examine in some
detail the evolution of that system since its inauguration just
over one hundred years ago.
History-Pre-
War.
In
the year 1829, the famous Act of Parliament creating
the Metropolitan police force heralded the advent in Great
Britain of a national system of police
that
was to succeed the
heterogeneous and notoriously ineffective elements, which
hitherto had been virtually useless in maintaining the King's
peace, and in protecting the lives and property of the lieges.
The
responsibility for organising the new stipendiary police
for the capital was entrusted to two commissioners.' who
acted under the direct instructions
of'
the Secretary of State
for Home Affairs, in whom complete authority was vested,
subject to Parliamentary sanction.
This
arrangement was
entirely uninfluenced by political considerations, and was at
the time the nearest approach to democratic control which
1
Subsequently
reduced
to one.
To continue reading
Request your trial