Police Actions: A Practical Guide

The past decade has seen a fundamental change in public attitudes towards the police. A number of widely publicised miscarriage of justice cases have focused public attention on the police misconduct in the conduct of criminal investigations. Despite the efforts of Chief Constables and the Police Complaints Authority,there remains a significant number of officers who are prepared to bend and break the rules in order to secure convictions. The victims of these rogue police officers have, increasingly, turned to the civil courts to obtain compensation. Civil actions against the police have now become an important area of general litication practice, so that it has become essential for solicitors who undertake criminal work to be able to deal with the civil claims against the police which arise from such actions. However, civil actions against the police present a number of serious practical difficulties for solicitors. In particular, they are the only area of civil work in the County Court which involves trial by jury. The post-1991