GMP's top cop has called for police to be given powers to charge suspects, but one leading barrister says that's 'plain daft'
Greater Manchester's Chief Constable Stephen Watson has said police should be given the power to charge suspects in most criminal cases. Mr Watson is one of three police chiefs calling for the controversial change, which they say would help fix the crisis in the criminal justice system.
If enacted the move would in effect see a return to the way the system operated before 1986, when the CPS was created. But the proposal has been criticised by one leading barrister, who described it as 'plain daft' and no substitute for a properly funded justice system. In what's been described as a 'unprecedented intervention', the three police chiefs said: "The Crown Prosecution Service is no longer able to give timely charging advice ; not because of anything the CPS has done, but because it does not have the resources or the people to do what it used to.
He said: "The Chief Constable's correctly identify that serious long term underfunding of the CPS has undermined the criminal justice system. They correctly note that this fails to deliver for victims and witnesses.
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