Changes In Police Power In England And Wales

The police force is an important branch of government in charge of crime investigation, crime prevention and order maintenance. In most countries, the balance between police power and citizen's rights is a big issue. The Metropolitan Police created in 1829 is regarded as the first uniformed police force in modern society. Due to its history, culture and legal tradition, police power in England and Wales has its own characteristics. This thesis focuses on the change of police power in England and Wales. There are four chapters concerning the creation of new police, the change in police accountability, the police power in crime investigation and the police complaint system.Chapter I The Creation of a Modern Police Force in England and WalesThe nature of police power in England and Wales is decided by the background in which the police was created. On the one hand, tremendous change happened since the industrial revolution in Britain, especially in big cities, the old policing system was out of date. On the other hand, the tradition was still very strong and resisted the idea of setting up the police.Traditionally, policing was a local affair. Each person had the obligation to keep the peace of the king. Ten households constituted one'tything', and ten tythings formed into one'hundred'. Once a crime was committed, all members of a community must join the pursuit of the felon by means of hue and cry. Since the 12th century, the office of constable and the Justice of peace emerged. Those part-time, unpaid officers were the main parts of policing system before the new police was established.The big change in society, the corruption of constable and Justice of Peace led to the collapse of the old system. Facing the serious situation of high crime rates, disorder and riots, the government enacted stricter criminal law and offered rewards to those who brought certain kinds of offender to justice. However those measures did not work. The police reformers had tried to change the old system since middle of 18 century. The magistrates of Bow Street, Henry Fielding and John Fielding set up a small body of'thief-takers'as a secret professional police force. In 1875, the Pitt's government introduced a bill in Parliament, proposing the establishment of a strong police force to act throughout the whole Metropolitan area. Magistrate Patrick Colquhoun published a book talking about the importance of police. The efforts of those policing reformers did not overthrow the old system, however they educated the public. In 1829, Robert Peel introduced his bill of police and it was passed without opposition in parliament. The Metropolitan police was established two month later.The new police was facing serious public hostility, so the most important issue for the police was legitimacy. The police claimed that a police officer was ordinary citizen, person paid to perform, as a matter of duty, acts which if he were so minded he might have done voluntarily. The police did not have any powers beyond what a citizen had. Robert Peel and other pioneers also took the strategy of policing by consent, non-partisanship, minimizing use of weapons, etc.. In general, the new police had few powers and more obligations.Chapter II Police Accountability----he Organizational Control of Police PowerPolice accountability refers to who controls the police, it is an most important issue when the new police was created in England and Wales. In the beginning, there were three types of accountability:the Metropolitan police were responsible to the Home Office, a central-control model; the municipal police were controlled by Watch Committee; the county police were appointed by magistrates (later by Standing Joint Committee); those two were local-control models. The variety of police accountability resulted from the tradition of local autonomy on policing affairs.In the 1960s, police accountability became a hot issue again. There were two reasons. Within the development of police force in the country, the police became stronger and more independent. The judges also agreed with the principle of police independence and police accountability to the law. At the same time, many cases of police corruption and abuse of power were exposed. The public felt that the police was out of control. In 1960, the Royal Commission on Police was appointed to review the arrangement of police control. The suggestions of the commission were mainly accepted by the legislature.The Police Act 1964 established so called'triangle'police accountability. The Home Office has the duty to promote the efficiency of the police and powers to discharge the duty. The local police authority should maintain an adequate and efficient force. The chief constable of each police force controls and directs the police.The 1964 act gave more powers to the Home Secretary, the function of local authority was weakened. In 1980s, serious riots occurred in big cities, such as London, Manchester. Lord Scarman who was appointed to investigate the riot happened in Brixton London concluded that the hard strategy used by police was one of social reasons caused the riot. He suggested that the police should listen to the voices of the community by setting up a consultation system. This idea was codified later.However, fighting crime is the top issue for the British government, especially under the pressure of terrorism crime and internet crime. The government needs a centralized and effective police. The Police Act 1996 did not emphasize on democratic accountability, on the contrary, the police accountability tended to be more centralized. Chapterâ…¢The Investigation Power of Police in England and WalesThe idea of'police is public'obstructed the development of the detective branch in London as well as other areas. The Metropolitan Police did not have a detective branch until 1842. At that time, there were only 8 constables. Correspondingly, the legislation of police investigation power developed very slowly.From the 1820s to the early 1980s, the police used its investigation power derived from common law and extended it through case law. In practice, the police possessed much more powers on arrest, interrogation and prosecution than the ordinary people, although in theory the police had the same power as the latter.In 1984, the Police and Criminal Evidence Act was enacted. It codified the powers developed by case law during last 155 years. At the same time, the act put more strict regulation on procedure. The aim of this act is keeping the balance between police investigation power and the suspect's rights. However, it turns out that the police were unhappy about the restriction, and the scholars thought too much power was endowed to police.The Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 created the Crown Prosecution system. The power of prosecution was transferred to this new institution, police lost a significant power.Chapterâ…£The Remedy of Police Power AbuseWhen a citizen's rights are infringed by police, he/she can make complaint to certain organization or sue the police force to the court.The police complaint system went through four reforms. The Police Act 1964 provided that the police force is responsible for the policeman's misconduct, and the chief constable is in charge of complaint investigation. The Police Act of 1976 created an independent organization, the Police Complaint Board (PCB) which can review the complaint case investigated by the chief constable. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act replaced PCB with the Police Complaint Authority (PCA) which has power to supervise the investigation in some serious cases. The Police reform Act 2002 changed PCA to The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). Now, there are four types of investigation:local investigation, IPCC supervised investigation, IPCC directed investigation, IPCC independent investigation. Compared with PCB and PCA, IPCC is more independent and more active in supervision and investigation. With four reforms in 38 years, change happened frequently. The public expected a completely independent police complaint system, which is still not the case in the IPCC model.Due to the low confidence in the police complaint system, many people prefer filing civil suits to get compensation from the police, and very often, they receives huge sums in damages from the police. The judges are not always on the side of citizen, they examine the police behavior closely and make sure that the citizen's rights are not violated, but they also know the importance of giving police enough power to fight crime.In general, the complicated police power system is derived from the special history, culture and legal philosophy. The nature of police power was decided by the background in which the new police was created. Police accountability is the organizational control of police power. The statutes regulate the detective and administrative power of police and the courts make modification and supplement. The core principle is maintaining the balance between the police power and the individual's rights.