Abstract
The quotation above by the ex-MPS commissioner Sir Robert Mark makes a number of bold claims, many of which would probably be re-asserted by senior police officers and politicians today. It also raises a number of key questions about cases of DAPC. Are police answerable to the law? Do they act on behalf of the community? Are they accountable? This chapter examines these questions and unpicks various issues that underpin them. It highlights the importance of relationships to understanding these questions and wider issues relating to cases of DAPC. The relationship between police, state and society is examined throughout this book, but this chapter particularly considers the relationship between the symbolic representation and practical reality of policing; it considers how discretion plays a significant role in the gap between representation and reality; and it examines how this affects the types of police accountability that might be produced from the perspectives of state, society and the police themselves. These relationships are complex and dynamic, and are inextricably linked with concepts such as legitimacy, consent and ambiguity.
The fact that the British police are answerable to the law, that we act on behalf of the community and not under the mantle of government, makes us the least powerful, the most accountable and therefore the most acceptable police in the world. (Mark 1977: 56)
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Notes
- 1.
Died after being struck with a police baton and pushed to the ground in London by an MPS officer during the London G20 protests in 2009. Determined to have been ‘unlawfully killed’ by a coroner’s court jury in 2011.
- 2.
Died after being shot dead by undercover police in London in the aftermath of the 7/7 terrorist attacks. The MPS reached an £100,000 legal settlement with Mr de Menezes’ family and offered an ‘unreserved apology’ for his ‘tragic’ death (Dodd 2009).
- 3.
Failure by police to control the crowd at a football match in Sheffield in 1989 led to ninety-six people dying and subsequent attempts by police to cover up what actually happened.
- 4.
It should be noted that this series was originally begun as a Home Office initiative in collaboration with the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) in 1998 (see, for example Leigh et al. 1998).
- 5.
This agency was replaced by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPPC) in April 2015.
- 6.
This agency was replaced by the College of Policing (CP) in January 2013.
- 7.
Shot dead by MPS officers in London in 2011. Widely believed to have precipitated the London riots that followed (Dodd 2014).
- 8.
Died after being shot six times by MPS undercover armed police in 2005. Found to have been ‘unlawfully killed’ by judicial inquiry in 2013.
- 9.
This compares to census figures from 2011 which state that the BME population of England and Wales was 14 per cent (ONS 2012).
- 10.
This compares to estimates from MIND that 25 per cent of the population of the UK have mental health issues (MIND 2012).
- 11.
An IPCC ten-year review into cases of DAPC noted approximately 1,000 ‘near misses’ in the period 1998–2008 (Hannan et al. 2010).
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Baker, D. (2016). Police, State and Society. In: Deaths After Police Contact. Critical Criminological Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58967-5_2
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