CONFIDENCE WANTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 622, 26 March 1929, Page 11

CONFIDENCE WANTED

POLICE AND PUBLIC

COMMISSION’S LONG REPORT

British Official Wireless

RUGBY, Sunday.

The report of the Royal Commission on police powers and procedure is issued in the form of a volume of 160 pages.

The commission says that mutual confidence between the police and the public is essential to ensure the efficiency and right conduct of the force. It recommends the simplification of the instructions regarding arrest given to constables, and the removal of the prevailing uncertainty as to the interpretation of the judges’ rule governing cautioning and the taking of statements.

The report vindicates the police from all charges of using third-degree methods, and of acting as “agentsprovocateurs.” , Corruption, while not unknown, is declared to be associated mainly with the enforcement of laws "out of harmony with public opinion. The public must therefore bear its share of the blame for police corruption.

The practice of sending police officers into night clubs, disguised as guests, and with power to spend money freely, is condemned as wholly objectionable. Legislation should be introduced authorising selected police officers to enter and inspect registered clubs, when there is reason to suspect that the law is being broken. The most stringent safeguards should, it is pointed out, be instituted to ensure that statements made by persons in custody are really voluntary. The arrest on a minor charge in order to facilitate inquiries into a major crime is deprecated. If the imposition upon the police of new and extraneous duties continues, their numbers must be increased.