Digital legal rights for suspects: users' perspectives and PACE safeguards

Research has consistently shown that many people do not understand their legal rights when arrested by the police. In seeking to help address this problem, a prototype App was developed to provide information to suspects when detained by the police. The prototype was tested with 100 detainees in two...

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Main Author: Kemp, Vicky
Format: Monograph
Published: University of Nottingham 2018
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52777/
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author Kemp, Vicky
author_facet Kemp, Vicky
author_sort Kemp, Vicky
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Research has consistently shown that many people do not understand their legal rights when arrested by the police. In seeking to help address this problem, a prototype App was developed to provide information to suspects when detained by the police. The prototype was tested with 100 detainees in two large custody suites and the findings are presented in this report. A number of issues are addressed, including police decision-making and the processing of cases, access to legal advice, users’ perspectives of fairness in the criminal process, and the potential for technology to enhance procedural safeguards. The study identified a number of problems relating to suspects’ legal rights. These include, for example, difficulties for suspects in accessing legal advice; with no provision to facilitate a confidential telephone conversation between a solicitor and their client. There were also identified long delays, with the average length of detention being over 17 hours in both police stations – almost double the time identified in an earlier study. Before proceeding, it is important that the gaps identified between the law in books and the law in action are addressed so that information about suspects’ legal rights, contained in an App, reflect practice on the ground.
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spelling nottingham-527772020-05-04T19:45:49Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52777/ Digital legal rights for suspects: users' perspectives and PACE safeguards Kemp, Vicky Research has consistently shown that many people do not understand their legal rights when arrested by the police. In seeking to help address this problem, a prototype App was developed to provide information to suspects when detained by the police. The prototype was tested with 100 detainees in two large custody suites and the findings are presented in this report. A number of issues are addressed, including police decision-making and the processing of cases, access to legal advice, users’ perspectives of fairness in the criminal process, and the potential for technology to enhance procedural safeguards. The study identified a number of problems relating to suspects’ legal rights. These include, for example, difficulties for suspects in accessing legal advice; with no provision to facilitate a confidential telephone conversation between a solicitor and their client. There were also identified long delays, with the average length of detention being over 17 hours in both police stations – almost double the time identified in an earlier study. Before proceeding, it is important that the gaps identified between the law in books and the law in action are addressed so that information about suspects’ legal rights, contained in an App, reflect practice on the ground. University of Nottingham 2018-07-10 Monograph NonPeerReviewed Kemp, Vicky (2018) Digital legal rights for suspects: users' perspectives and PACE safeguards. Project Report. University of Nottingham, Nottingham.
spellingShingle Kemp, Vicky
Digital legal rights for suspects: users' perspectives and PACE safeguards
title Digital legal rights for suspects: users' perspectives and PACE safeguards
title_full Digital legal rights for suspects: users' perspectives and PACE safeguards
title_fullStr Digital legal rights for suspects: users' perspectives and PACE safeguards
title_full_unstemmed Digital legal rights for suspects: users' perspectives and PACE safeguards
title_short Digital legal rights for suspects: users' perspectives and PACE safeguards
title_sort digital legal rights for suspects: users' perspectives and pace safeguards
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52777/