PARTNERS IN CRIME? NEW RELATIONSHIPS IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
On 13 October in Glasgow the Lord Advocate, Colin Boyd QC, told a packed audience of police and criminal justice professionals that the relationship between law enforcement and prosecution agencies needs to maintain its current dynamism if it is to be effective in the future.
Mr Boyd was invited to present the annual James Smart Memorial Lecture, which is given in honour of the first Chief Constable of Glasgow. He is only the second Lord Advocate to ever be asked to make the speech.
An extract of the lecture follows:
"In my visits to Procurator Fiscal Offices and meetings with police officers, I have been impressed with the effectiveness of local action to target persistent offenders. It is a common fact throughout the country that very small numbers of persistent offenders are responsible for the majority of our business. By identifying those responsible and co-ordinating our work to ensure that it complements each other we have been able to work together to apprehend and remand in custody and bring to justice the most persistent offenders.
Let me give you some specific examples.
In November and December 2004 there were a series of incidents in a Stirlingshire village which focused on a local shopkeeper. He was subjected to a concerted campaign of racist abuse as well as vandalism and disorder in the shop premises - all carried out by a small group of youths. The incidents were carried out at different times by different members of the group on an individual basis over a period of some weeks. Had they been dealt with in the traditional manner then they would have resulted in a series of disconnected reports to the PF and cases in court which were individually not serious.
Stirling Procurator Fiscal's office worked with the local police inspector to agree a process whereby the cases against each of the six individuals would be rolled up as they happened and bail would be opposed. Where bail was granted there was an agreed set of conditions sought by the Crown for each accused and these were communicated immediately to local officers and the victim. Additional guidance was also given to the police on how best to handle individual breaches of bail (such as curfew breaches) which allowed a full picture to come before the court instead of isolated incidents. The local police also kept the victim fully informed of the latest position with each accused.
Over a short period of time, each accused's cases were successively rolled up, bail conditions were sought and the bail position was then reviewed to the point where the accused were remanded in custody. The original trial diets were preserved but the full set of charges facing the accused at the time of the trial diet (by which time all of them were in custody) showed a much fuller and accurate picture. From the victim's point of view, he had one citation for each trial instead of 20 to 30 different citations for different trials which continually changed. In addition, throughout this process, there were regular case conferences between the police and Procurator Fiscal to which the local Race Equality group were invited.
The result of the initiative was that the conduct came to an end, the accused were all sentenced (not all of them to custody) and the conduct has not started again.
The key aspects of the initiative in terms of joint working were: early discussion between police and the Fiscal's Office to identify the nature of the problem, a clear approach on both sides, cases reported from custody and bail opposed or conditions of curfew sought and strong policing of bail conditions in the knowledge that it would make a difference to the liberty of the accused.
Another example, this time involving more serious crime and involving Customs and the SDEA. In 2003, four Scots were given lengthy jail sentences after being convicted of smuggling the largest ever consignment of cocaine into Scotland. The customs investigation, Operation Thyme, followed on the importation of three suspect containers at Felixstowe. 500 kilogrammes of cocaine, worth an estimated £30m at street value, had been concealed in one of the container load of bales of raw rubber. Customs officers followed the cargo from Felixstowe to Scotland. After a surveillance operation the gang were arrested at industrial estates in Glasgow and Ayrshire.
Customs officers in that case, together with colleagues from the SDEA, had sought and obtained early guidance on the case from the Procurator Fiscal's office in Airdrie, prior even to the consignment arriving in the UK. This recognised the unique role that the Crown can play in such investigations, not simply in providing legal advice and authorising procedures where necessary, but in shaping the case for that future stage when the Crown must be able to present the best possible case to the court.
These examples show that effective partnership working between the police and the Procurator Fiscal can deliver real and tangible results.
The most productive partnerships are based on a closer understanding of each other's character and interests. As such understanding increases, so it becomes more instinctive.
But the development of strong partnerships is not simply driven by the internal relationship. One only has to look at the accountancy and legal professions in the modern era to see how ephemeral the nature of partnerships can be. Major firms merge and split as they evolve to the meet the challenges of the day and particularly the challenge of change itself - the need to be flexible, adaptable and responsive. Those organisations that succeed will inevitably have a dynamic, not static, character.
And that must be the nature of any partnership that we have in any modern Criminal Justice system, because the environment in which it exists will never be less than dynamic. Prospective partners must adapt to changes in human behaviour, developments in knowledge, particularly in technology, and the way that society functions in general. And from our own Scottish perspective, we see that - in our devolved era - in increased legislative change, greater accountability, and intense ongoing public scrutiny of all that we do. And we have our own changing social conditions and trends. If you add in the specific features of our own area of work - the unpredictability of such work, the challenges of new and complex crime, and the globalisation of relationships, criminal and otherwise, one can see why dynamic partnerships are essential.
I want COPFS to be at the heart of change in the criminal justice system. It is difficult to conceive of any other place that we can be given our central role in all its casework. But our capacity to drive and influence change will be largely determined by the quality of our relationships with all our criminal justice partners, especially with our key partners in the police and Scottish Courts Service."