CM1S005

Understanding Criminal
Justice
Police Questioning &
Detention

Lecture aims
To introduce police powers at
the police station
To introduce suspects rights

Dr Harriet Pierpoint

Dr Harriet Pierpoint

University of South Wales

Models of Criminal Justice

Crime Control

Due Process

Disregard of legal
controls
Implicit presumption of
guilt
High conviction rate
Unpleasantness of
experience
High conviction rate

Equality between parties

Rules protecting
defendants against error
Restraint of Arbitrary
power
Presumption of
Innocence

History of Police Powers and

Suspects Rights (pt1)
Judges Rules (1912)
Concerns with Police excess in questioning

Confait Case
Fisher Inquiry (1977)
Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure (1981)
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
(Revised) PACE Codes of Practice

Concern with Miscarriages of Justice

Royal Commission on Criminal Justice (1993)

History of Police Powers and

Suspects Rights (pt2)
Concerns with Racial discrimination
Macpherson report 1999

Concerns with Terrorism

Terrorism Act 2000
Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Disorder Act
2001

Background

History of Police Powers and

Suspects Rights (pt3)
Simplification and rationalizing of procedures
Rebalancing in favour of victims and witnesses
Home Office/Cabinet Office (2002) Review of PACE
Home Office Consultation Paper Policing: Modernising Police
Powers to Meet Community Needs (2004)
Home Office Consultation Paper Modernising Police Powers:
Review of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984
(March 2007)

Source Zander (2007) Response to Consultation Paper

(http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/law/staff%20publications%20full%20text/zander/PACE%20%20MZ%20Response%20to%20CP%20May%2023%202007.pdf)

Background

PACE (1984)
Any person at a Police station voluntarily is
entitled to leave unless arrested
Any arrested person can be held for 24 hours
without charge
Introduced role of the Custody Sergeant
Rights to legal advice clarified

Criminal Justice and Public Order Act (1994)

Negative Inferences can be made from silence
under questioning

Criminal Justice Act (2003)

Lifted time limit for detention without
charge to 36 hours (non-terrorist cases)

Terrorism Act (2006)

Terror suspects could be held for 28 days
without charge.

Suspects rights at the police

station

Police powers at the police

station

To have someone informed of arrest

Detention (Code C)

To legal advice

Intimate searches &

x-rays (Code C)

To consult the Codes

To silence (curtailed) the caution

Identification
methods (Code D)
Questioning (Codes
Dr Harriet Pierpoint
C, E & F)

The Purpose of Detention

Under s 37 of PACE:
When The Custody Officer has
reasonable grounds for believing that
his detention without being charged is
necessary to secure or preserve
evidence by questioning him

To a fair trial (e.g. Pierpoint, 2000; Brookman & Pierpoint,

2003)
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Dr Harriet Pierpoint

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The Purpose of Detention

(unofficial)
Reception into Custody has become
essentially a routinised process (Dixon
et al 1990 p130)
Assertion of Police Control (Sanders and
Young (2007)
Punishment and Inducement (Sanders and
Young (2007)

Right to have someone informed of

arrest

Detention
Custody officer/record

In all cases, suspects were informed of

rights

Entitlement to minimum
conditions
e.g. bedding, sanitation,
clothing, refreshment,
exercise & medical
treatment

Unofficial delays
In 25% cases, it was unclear whether or
not contact had been made

Detention reviews
PACE clock
Dr Harriet Pierpoint

Dr Harriet Pierpoint

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Class A drugs

Intimate searches & x-rays

PACE 1984

British Medical Association and Association of Police Surgeons

guidelines (1999)
A fundamental ethical principle guiding medical practice is that no
examination, diagnosis or treatment of a competent adult should be
undertaken without the person's consent. The ethical obligation to
seek consent applies even where this is not a legal requirement
(para 2)

ACPO Drugs Sub-Committee

Consultation paper Modernising Police Powers to Meet

Community Needs (Home Office 2004)

Drugs Act 2005

Dr Harriet Pierpoint

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Intimate search
Requires written consent
Appropriate inferences may be
drawn where a person refuses to
consent
May only be conducted by a
registered medical practitioner or
nurse
May only be conducted at a
hospital, registered medical
practitioner's surgery or other
place used for medical purposes

X-ray and ultrasound scan

Requires written consent
Appropriate inferences may be
drawn where a person refuses to
consent (swallowers only)
May only be conducted by a
registered medical practitioner or
nurse
May only be conducted at a
hospital, registered medical
practitioner's surgery or other
place used for medical purposes

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Dangerous objects
Intimate search
For items which might cause
injury
Consent not required
May be carried out in a police
station
May be carried out by a police
officer of the same sex as the
suspect

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Questioning

Identification methods
Video identification/
identification
parades

Normally in police interview

room

Usually audio (or visual)

recorded

Under caution

Exclusion of confessional
evidence obtained by
oppression/unfairly?

Fingerprints
Body samples
Photographs
Searches

Dr Harriet Pierpoint

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Dr Harriet Pierpoint

Right to legal advice

The Caution
You do not have to say anything. But it
may harm your defence if you do not
mention when questioned something
which you later rely on in Court.
Anything you do say may be given in
evidence.
Limited comprehension of caution
Dr Harriet Pierpoint

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Majority of suspects are

informed of right

70% suspects understand

right

Police ploys (Sanders et al.,

1989; Kemp, 2010)
now under PACE you
can read them their rights
as quickly as you can hit
them with it so quick they
cant take it in say sign
here, here and here and
there you are, nothing has
changed. (in Sanders et al.,
2010)
Dr Harriet Pierpoint

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Table from Sanders et al (2010:233)

Request Rate %

Consultation Rate %

1988

25

19

1991

32

25

1995/6

40

34

2007

60

48

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Quality of legal advice

Doubts surrounding mode, quantity & quality of
advice (e.g. Evans, 1993; Pearse and Gudjonnson,
1996; Philips and Brown, 1998)
But evidence that the quality of advice significantly
improved as time went on (Bridges and Choongh,
1998; Cape, 2002; Cape and Hickman, 2002)
But there were no statistical differences on the
performance of police officers' interviewing suspects
dependent on the presence of a legal advisor (Clarke
et al, 2011)
Dr Harriet Pierpoint

Probability of requesting legal

advice by age (Kemp et al, 2011)

Dr Harriet Pierpoint

How do we explain this?

Due process Crime control (Packer,
1968)
Due process is for crime control
(McBarnet, 1981)
Use of police powers and suspects
rights & entitlements to exert social
discipline (Choongh,
1997; 1998)
Dr Harriet Pierpoint

Packers Models of Criminal

Process
Crime Control

conveyor belt
speed of criminal
process
repression of crime as
key aim
importance of police
role and informal pretrial fact finding

Due
Process

obstacle course
protect the innocent as
well as finding the guilty
Importance of impartial
court hearing, distrust in
pre trial fact finding
Equality and control of
power abuse

Conclusions
Examination of police investigation
process highlights
tension between crime control & due
process
potential use of police powers and
suspects entitlements to exert social
discipline (Choongh, 1997)
Dr Harriet Pierpoint

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