Notes on Police and Legal Legitimacy †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Notes on Police and Legal Legitimacy. Answer: Introduction: As per the Police Act 1990 (NSW), one of the key value highlight in the statement of values is upholding the rule of law (NSW Government, 2012). The rule of law refers to a system where the law is supreme and decision is based on law rather than on the whims and desires of the government or individual in power. Additionally, it also implies that no person or institution is above the law and also that the law applied would be same for any person or institution of the state irrespective of their wealth, power or position. The upholding of rule of law is a vital pre-requisite for the functioning of democracy (Jackson et. al., 2012). The upholding of rule of law plays a very crucial role in securing the legitimacy of police. This is primarily because rule of law ensures that police cannot be used as a tool by the government or individual in power to attain political objectives. In the absence of the police upholding the rule of law, the police functioning would be reduced to the whims and fancies of the government in power. However, under the rule of law, the police officials are driven by the laws of the land and trace the indirect authority from the Constitution instead of the government or the head (Bradford, MurphyandJackson, 2014). Also, upholding the rule of law implies that the underlying law would apply equally to all the citizens of the country including the rich and politicians. If the rule of law is not upheld, then it may be possible to extend differentiated rules to different people based on their power and position (Jackson et. al., 2012). However, such a discriminatory behaviour would tend to undermine the legitimacy of police in the eyes of common people who would consider police as a measure of suppression and control. Besides, upholding this value also ensures that politicians and the rich are kept under control. Since the same laws apply to the rich and powerful, hence they cannot take the system for granted. Thus the incidence of systemic corruption would remain under check if this value is upheld by the police force (Bradford, MurphyandJackson, 2014). References Bradford, B.,Murphy, K.andJackson, J.(2014), Officers as mirrors: policing, procedural justice and the (re)production of social identity, British Journal of Criminology, 54(4), pp.527-550 Jackson, J., Bradford, B., Hough, M. and Murray, K. H. (2012), Compliance with the law and policing by consent: notes on police and legal legitimacy [online] Available at https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/30157/1/Jackson_etal_Compliance_with_the_law_and_policing_by_consent_2012.pdf [Accessed March 30, 2018] NSW Government (1990) Police Act 1990 No 47, [online] Available at https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/inforce/3b3d09c0-7b19-6d3d-ea5a-e0977c6a6a35/1990-47.pdf [Accessed March 30, 2018]