NCJ Number
131912
Journal
Policing and Society Volume: 1 Issue: 4, Dated: (1991) Pages: 285-298
Date Published
1991
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Reappraising the role of the police in public order situations, this paper proposes that the option of a "third force," a purpose-oriented unit with the skills and powers necessary to perform a predetermined function and that the option of a third force needs to be re-examined against the costs of trying to maintain an incompatible range of police functions and an increasingly unpopular public image.
Abstract
The third force option is explored in terms of what it is, how it would function, why it is necessary, funding, and its advantages and disadvantages. In the British context, a third force is the need for an agency that can relieve the police of the of countering mass public order violence. Functioning as a national body ultimately responsible to a multi-party parliamentary committee, the unit primarily would attempt to contain and resolve public order problems and would replace the police in much the same way that the traffic warden system has almost completely replaced many former traffic police functions. Its overriding advantage is the burden it takes from the police. 60 references (Author abstract modified)