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To protect & to serve

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23 May 2019 / Alec Samuels
Issue: 7841 / Categories: Features , Criminal
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Alec Samuels reflects on the particular duty of the police to protect us
  • The criminal has caused serious injury or death to the victim. Has the victim or the family of the victim any remedy?

The victim rings 999 and calls for help. The police go to the victim’s house. Too late. The criminal has caused serious injury or death to the victim. Has the victim or the family of the victim any remedy?

The police are under a general duty to protect the public, but it is not a particular duty to each and every one of us individually. The victims of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, had no remedy against the police for failing to protect them from death or injury: Hill v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire [1989] AC 53. The victim would need to show some sort of acceptance of responsibility for protection in the particular case, a special promise of protection upon which the victim relied. Basically the victim must prove that the police

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