NCJ Number
70083
Journal
New York Review Dated: (September 8, 1966) Pages: 1-12
Date Published
1966
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This 1966 article highlights the problems of policing the police and examines the American Law Institute's (ALI's) draft model code of police practices and the Supreme Court decision in Miranda v. Arizona.
Abstract
The interrogation problem is the most visible and controversial aspect of police practices. In Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court limited circumstances under which the police may interrogate arrested persons and thwarted the interrogation provision of the ALI model code which established a 20-minute investigative stop-search-question period for all but a few minor offenses. In addition, the Court made a final break with its exercise of the traditional judicial role in confession cases in which the voluntary nature of a confession was determined case by case. Through Miranda and its predecessor, Escobedo, the Court indicated that the police were not upholding 14th amendments rights. Although the Court's sanction-fashioning power can discipline offending police by revising the defendant's conviction, the legislature is a more appropriate forum to devise, ordain, and finance an elaborate discipline structure. Improved salaries, recruitment policies, and educational standards are recommended to make police more responsive to libertarian values. Additional models of sanctioning devices are needed, such as a right to file suit against the governmental unit employing the police, accompanied by provisions for recovery of damages, counsel fees, etc. Respect for due process should be built into the police model of efficiency through an administrative and review structure incorporating a more sophisticated version of the civilian review board. Moreover, it should be recognized that the tensions inherent in the police problem are exacerbated by undue demands on criminal law to cure society's ills.