ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the way police powers and citizens’ rights can be theorised. It discusses the meaning of the power of the police, distinguishing legality, that is, whether legal rules are abided by, an approach which is typically associated with sociolegal scholars, from how the police use their authority, an approach which is associated more with sociologists and criminologists. The legality of police behaviour is judged in terms of whether it conforms to established rules in particular societies and, thus, whether detainees access the rights that are available to them as a result of these legal rules. The most important sociolegal accounts used to understand legality in the criminal process is provided by H. Packer in his influential crime control and due process model. Discretion permeates all aspects of the police institution, meaning that it is a central topic in the field of police studies and, as will be argued, to the examination of police powers and citizens’ rights.
