NCJ Number
126995
Journal
Police Volume: 23 Issue: 9 Dated: (June 1990) Pages: 24-26,28
Date Published
1990
Length
4 pages
Annotation
A review of the history and nature of the role of the British Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is followed by the transcript of an interview with the current Director of Public Prosecutions, Allan Green, with a focus on police complaints about the performance of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Abstract
The historical review of the Director of Public Prosecutions begins with the appointment of the first director in 1880 and describes the establishment of the CPS, headed by the DPP, which is responsible for virtually all prosecutions in England and Wales. This supplants a system in which police solicitors prosecuted cases. The interview with Allan Green, the DPP since 1987, focuses on his responses to police complaints about the CPS. In response to police complaints about incompetent prosecutors, Green acknowledges some problems in recruiting sufficient numbers of competent prosecutors but reports progress in this area. Green indicates that the CPS determines whether or not to prosecute cases based on the criterion of a realistic prospect of a conviction. He asserts that police perceptions of this criterion being stricter than under previous CPS regimes is not correct. Other police complaints against the CPS answered by Green involve prosecutorial zealousness in seeking convictions, prosecutorial standards for police case file preparation, undercharging, and prosecutorial attention to the interests of crime victims.