Stop And Search

Police powers are extensive as well as excessive. So are the powers they pretend they have. Abusing our ignorance is normal police practice.

Metropolitan Police On Stop And Search - http://www.met.police.uk/stopandsearch/
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To increase the trust and confidence of the people who live and work in London in how the MPS use stop and search.

The stops & searches team was formed, within the Territorial Policing Command to oversee the implementation of the recommendations that came from the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) scrutiny on MPS use of stop and search carried out in 2004. The team has had its remit widened to incorporate all MPS stop and search issues.

The five main areas of business around Stop and Account/Search to achieve the aims can be summarised as follows:

• Policy and Standard Operating Procedures

• Community Engagement

• Borough Operational Command Unit Performance

• Borough Command Support

• MPS Stops Database and Data Quality

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This should be right because it is very public. This makes it difficult for them to lie.

 

Stop And Search
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Welcome to our new Stop & Search website, an independent information resource designed to answer any questions you might have about Stop and Search and your rights.
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There is extra stuff built in.

 

Stops & Searches Fall After European Court Ruling
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The number of stops and searches by police under controversial counterterrorism laws has fallen sharply since the government curtailed the scope of the powers.

There were 45,932 stops and searches by police in England, Scotland and Wales under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in the year ended September 2010 – a 77% reduction on the previous 12 months, when there were 200,775, according to Home Office figures.

The use of the section 44 powers fell most dramatically after July 2010, when the home secretary, Theresa May, scrapped their use against individuals, in line with a European court ruling that they were unlawful. Between July and September last year the powers were used 666 times, a 98% reduction on the same period in 2009, when they were used 30,070 times.

Before July 2010, officers could stop and search anyone in a designated area without having to show reasonable suspicion. The European court of human rights ruled that the powers were unlawful because they were too broadly drawn and lacked sufficient safeguards to protect civil liberties. Since July the powers have been limited to only allow the police to search vehicles, and officers must have grounds for suspecting they are being used in connection with terrorism.

 

Stop & Search Powers Illegal
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The BBC reports…

Police powers to use terror laws to stop and search people without grounds for suspicion are illegal, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.

The Strasbourg court has been hearing a case involving two people stopped near an arms fair in London in 2003.

It said that Kevin Gillan and Pennie Quinton’s right to respect for a private and family life was violated.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he was disappointed with the ruling and would appeal against it.

Chief Constable Craig Mackey of the Association of Chief Police Officers said officers would continue to use stop and search powers while the appeal was pending.

‘Discriminatory use’

Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allows the home secretary to authorise police to make random searches in certain circumstances.

But the European Court of Human Rights said the pair’s rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated.

The court said the stop and search powers were “not sufficiently circumscribed” and there were not “adequate legal safeguards against abuse”.

It also concluded that “the risks of the discriminatory use of the powers” were “a very real consideration”.
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Real power is the power to abuse power. That is how they like it.