POLICE METHODS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 220, 15 August 1928, Page 7

POLICE METHODS.

ROYAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY

OFFICERS’ POWERS AND DUTIES

(Australian Press Association.) LONDON, Aug. 13. The Royal Commission to consider the powers and duties of the police consists of Lord Leo of Farohiun, Lord Ebbisham, Sir Howard Frank, Mr Reginald Lane-Poole, Mr Frank 1 lek, Mr J. T. Brownlie, Dame Meriel Talbot, and Miss Margaret Beavan, tlic Lord Mayor of Liverpool. Satisfaction is expressed over the personnel of the commission, of which a good deal probably will bo heard later. Lord Ebbisham was formerly Sir Rowland Blades, ex-Lord Mayor of London; Mr Poole is head of Lewis and Lewis, solicitors; Mr Pick is managing director of the London Underground Railways and General Omnibus Company; Mr Brownlio is president of tho Engineering Union; and Dame Talbot is a member of the Government Oversoas Settlement Committee.

The terms of reforenco are considered to bo wide enough to include all tho issues raised in the Savidgo case. Others are to consider the general powers and duties of the police in England and Wales in investigating crimes and offences, including tho functions of the Director of Public Prosecutions and tho police in the practice followed in interrogating and taking statements from persons . interviewed in the course of crime investigation. The Daily Telegraph states: “Both the terms of reference and the personnel of the commission promise that the inquiry, which will come to grips with the causes of the recent troubles, will help to restore the confidence of the public. Nothing has caused so much uneasiness as the allegation that third degree methods liavo been introduced since tho war. It may not- bo easy to mark the frontier where police zeal in the detection of crime violates the fundamental principles of individual rights and liberty, but the public will insist that such a lino bo drawn.”