Regulating policing

The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) was an innovative and controversial attempt to regulate the investigation of crime. Two decades on, it now operates in a very different context than in the mid-1980s. Whilst legal advice has become established as a basic right of those arrested and detained by the police, the police service has become increasingly professionalised but also increasingly driven by government objectives and targets. The Crown Prosecution Service, originally established to separate prosecution from investigation, is now becoming involved in the investigative process.