Her recommendations include:
● drastic reductions in Whitehall targets and a moratorium on additional police powers pending the evaluation of existing laws
● development of independent mechanisms to ensure good governance instead of further central and local electoral accountability of police forces
● setting of ethical guidelines for police officers who speak publicly on matters of contested opinion rather than hard fact
● parliamentary examination of the role and constitutional function of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)
Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti will say in her address:
“As law and order has moved up the political agenda, so the pressures on the police service and its independence have increased. Rarely does a day go by without a new political proposal for greater “accountability” on the one hand, or a serving police officer advocating further powers on the other. Yet umpteen new criminal offences, police powers and other broad laws from Parliament have been matched by Government targets. Might it not be possible for professional police discretion and fundamental rights and freedoms to march hand in hand?”
“I can certainly sympathise with chief constables who might prefer the microphone to the truncheon and see why ministers love the feel of a bullet proof vest. I can only ask those with senior roles in policing and politics to beware the real dangers of continued constitutional cross-dressing.”
Contact Jen Corlew on 0207 378 3656 or 07973 831 128 NOTES TO EDITORS
The Police Foundation John Harris Memorial Lecture will be held at 18:00 on 2nd July 2008 at Draper's Hall in the City of London EC2. Admittance is by ticket only. If you would like to attend please contact
sue.roberts@police-foundation.org.uk or call 020 7582 3744.
Previous Police Foundation John Harris Memorial Lectures have been delivered by five former Home Secretaries (the Rt Hon David Blunkett MP, the Rt Hon Michael Howard, the Rt Hon Kenneth Baker, the Rt Hon Jack Straw MP, and the Rt Hon Lord Denning); four former Metropolitan Police Commissioners (Sir John Stevens, Sir Paul Condon, Sir Peter Imbert, and Sir Kenneth Newman); and Leader of the Conservative Party David Cameron and former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
For a full copy of Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti’s speech, entitled “A Thinning Blue Line? Police Independence and the Rule of Law” contact
jenc@liberty-human-rights.org.uk To acknowledge the unique contribution of Lord Harris of Greenwich, the founder of the Police Foundation, its Annual Lecture was renamed following his death in April 2001 as the 'John Harris Memorial Lecture'.
