Force Orders 1935_85
X
No. 85.
Date 13th December 1935.
A D td2 N 2 5 T E R I N G A CAUTION
5tanding General Order 274 of the 3rd December 1924 is
cancelled.
The following Order wi11 be compliedwith in administering
a cauti.on -
YPhena crime has been committed and you are trying to discover
the author of it, there is o objectionto your making enquiries of, or
putting questiottsto, any person from whom you think you can obtain
useful informationand there is no need to caution such person. It is
your duty to discover the criminal if you can, and to do this you must
make such enquiries,and if in the course o£ them you should chance to
interrogateand to receive answers from a man who turns out to be the
criminalhimself, ai4 who inculpateshimsélf by these anewers, they are
neverthelessadmi.ssiblein evidence,and may be used against him.
VJhenhowever a Constabléhatsa 4'arrantto arrest a persoa or is
about to arrast a person on his own authorityor has a person in custody
for a crime, it is wrong to question such person touching the crime of
which ha is accused without first cautioniaghim.
On arrestinga man.a Constable ought simply to read is warrant
or to tell the accused the nature of the charge upon which he is arrested,
leaving it to the person so arrested to say anything or nothing as he
pleases.. For a Constable to préss any accused person to say anything
with reference to the crime of whic}ihe is accused is very wrong.
. Remember if an accused person makes d.statement in coneequence
of any promise or threat, even though it amounts to an absolute confession
it cannot be used agaisïstthe person makittgit
There is no objectionto a Constable listeningto any mere
voluntary statementwhich a prisoner desires to make and repeating such
statement in evidencenor is there any objéotion to his repeating in
evidettceany conversationhe may have heard between the prisoner and any
other person. But he ought not by anything he says or does, to invite
or enc urage an accused person to make any statementwithout first .
cautioninghim that he is not bound to say anything tending to incriminate
himself, and that anything he may say wi11 be used in evidence.
Thereforeapplying the principlesoutli,nedabove to motor car
1.
accidentsa Constablew111 on1y cautiona driverwhen he has observed
the accidentand is satisfiedthe driver is to b1ame or for some other
reason he has come to the conclusionthe driver is to b1ame. There'
is never any necessityto cautionan ordinaryv .tness.
In motoring offence when thc Constabledee s that the driver
has exoeededthe speed li nitor the driver has driven through a Police
trap the Constableshould_informhim "You wi11 be re.portedfor
considerationoP the questionof prosecutingyou for exceedinga speed
limit" and in the case of an offenceunder Section 11 (Dangerous
Driving) or u der kection12 (CarelessDriving)of the Road Traffic
Act, 1930, the Constableshould say to the driver "You wi11 be reported
for considerationof the questiono£ prosecutingyou for one or more of
thè offenoesof reckless,dangarousor aarelessdriving0 "
2.