Policing by Coerciion
The widely criticised Police and Criminal Evidence Bill would have given the police unprecedented new powers on the streets and in police stations. Although the Bill fell when the 1983 General Election was called, a new Bill is being reintroduced by the government. This book analyses the issues behind the Bill, and the argument that the new powers are needed not to detect crime, but to enable the police to act as a repressive mechanism of social control. The effect will be to legitimise policing by coercion.