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New stop and search powers (1)

01 January 1991

New stop and search powers
artdoc July=1994

The Home Secretary Michael Howard has introduced an amendment to
the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill currently before
parliament extending powers to stop and search people in an
locality decided by the police. The existing power to stop and
search a person or vehicle for offensive weapons under the Police
and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984 requires `reasonable
grounds to suspect that...an offensive article will be found'.
The amendment removes the requirement of `reasonable suspicion'
and allows a police superintendent (or in emergency an inspector)
to authorise stop and searches in an `area where trouble is
expected'. This power to declare `no go' areas can last for up
to 24 hours and for six more hours if violence occurs. Failure
to stop in a defined area when asked by the police to do so will
be punishable by one month in prison or £1,000 fine. Records of
those stopped, including their ethnic origin, are to be kept and
published.
The Home Office and police staff bodies (who campaigned for the
changes) are keen to deny this means the reintroduction of the
old `sus' stop and search powers which were used extensively in
the black communities. However, the introduction of random stop
and searches without the need for `reasonable suspicion' in
`areas' or locality (the extent of which are undefined and
unlimited) will raise fears that the `sus' law is back in a new
guise.
Home Office press release, `New powers to protect the public',
8.4.94; POLICE, May 1994; Police Review, 25.3.94.

Statewatch, Vol 4 no 3, May-June 1994