Police Powers

This chapter focuses on problems created by police power in England and Wales. It examines the issues from the perspective of those who suffer abuses, and questionable uses, of police power. While the chapter accepts that the police need power to do their job, it is argued that how much power they need depends on how one conceptualises that job. The chapter concludes that the short-term emphasis on crime control within policing should be replaced with a long-term focus on maintaining and enlarging the sense of a free society.