Charging for police

Press, 9 March 1987, Page 20

Charging for police

Another, quite separate aspect of the Police Complaints Authority Bill might give the wider community a reason for disquiet. Mrs Hercus has taken the opportunity to tack on to the bill a “Part II,” containing a rag-tag collection of amendments to the Police Act. Most of the provisions are mundane

administrative details — method of appointment of commissioned officers, duties of recruits in training, and suchlike — and are quite unexceptionable. The last clause of the bill, however, will give effect to Mrs Hercus’s “rent-a-cop” proposal by authorising the setting of fees and charges for police services.

Police attendance at sporting events or entertainments for which an admission is charged — “whether any profit is actually made or intended to be made” — will have to be paid for, as will police supervision of the

drawing of raffles and the supply to insurance companies of information relating to the theft or damage of property. The range of services that it is intended to charge for requires a dozen clauses and a half-dozen sub-clauses to list.

The details of how the user-pay philosophy will be extended to the police and the maintenance of public order are of less consequence, however, than the step itself. Putting a price on tasks that have long been regarded as part of ordinary police work is an artificial and obnoxious attribution of liability for some limited aspects of public order. Public order and the maintenance of law — even its more trifling provisions — are the duty and obligation of the State; the State is the ultimate user of police services and only the State should pay.