Policing and Crime Bill
12:00 pm
Shami Chakrabarti: Absolutely right, sir. We do not take principled objection to the tripartite structure, but we do have concerns about the role of a modern police force in a modern democracy. We see it as a vital agency that serves the rule of law, rather than serving the Executive at local or central level. Ultimately, the police are servants, in a way, of the statute book. Through the statute book, you and your colleagues here communicate directly with each police constable doing their job in the land, and through the statute book you also, hopefully, communicate clearly with people who are helped and, sometimes, rightly hindered by the police. That is in the best traditions of policing in this country. ACPO may well have a role, but its current role has just developed without the proper intervention of Parliament. It is a creature that has grown up organically. It is a company that largely regulates itself, but at the same time is given more and more statutory power.