Problem of Law Enforcement Policy in England and Wales - The Case of Community Policing and Racial Attacks

• NCJ Number: 94273
• Journal: International Journal of the Sociology of Law Volume: 12 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1984) Pages: 117-135
• Author(s): T Jefferson; R Grimshaw
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

Conceptions of public justice offer coherent ways of distributing police services consistent with democratic principles of equality, but the police are not authorized to set policy on the implementation of conceptions of public justice; this requires the development of a new elected body in England and Wales responsible to the law and competent to decide police law enforcement policy within a framework of public justice.

Abstract

Incidents of racially motivated violence between blacks and whites have prompted citizen and police consideration of appropriate police response to complaints of the unjust treatment of racial minorities both by the police and majority citizens. The police have no specific policy with respect to racially motivated offenses, with policy being defined as an authoritative statement signifying a settled practice on any matter relevant to the duties of the Chief Constable. The police response to racial incidents has been the same as response to any law violation, regardless of the special motivations involved in the offense or the social conflict underlying them. The commitment to impartial law enforcement requires that known offenses and known offenders be dealt with according to law rather than motivational criteria or social conditions surrounding the offense. At the policy level, the legal parameters for police functioning preclude other than police management establishing general procedures for dealing lawfully with offenses specified in law. The complaints surrounding the police handling of racial conflicts involve issues in the distribution of public services according to concepts of public justice. The policy task is to examine the criteria by which police services might be distributed. This task should be performed not by the police but by a body of elected officers charged with deciding on issues of public justice in police policy and the consequent distribution of police services. Notes and references are provided.