[Infowarrior] - More UK police check hysteria...

[Richard Forno]

Preventive policing? Don't even think about it

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/07/preventative_policing/

Police 'randomly searching every fifth person'

By John Ozimek • Get more from this author

Posted in Policing, 7th November 2008 15:17 GMT

Drinking in Aberdeen just got a whole lot more complicated, as police  
warned those popping out for a swift half that they may need to  
undergo drug testing before they are served.

In Lancaster, police were last week setting up scanners near the  
central bus station to check passers-by for knives. Meanwhile, on  
Waterloo station, sniffer dogs that will check you out for drugs or  
bombs – but not knives – have become a regular part of the daily  
commuter experience.

Welcome to the world of preventive policing. This, as Catholic readers  
may recognise, is one in which you may be penalised not just for the  
sins you have committed, but also for ones you are about to commit, or  
may just casually have thought about committing.

In Aberdeen, pub-goers will soon be faced with The Itemiser (pdf) -  
also known as the Ion Detector. This device can detect traces of drugs  
- including cocaine, cannabis, heroin and ecstasy - from hand swabs in  
a matter of seconds, flashing up green, amber or red according to what  
it thinks may be present.

Green will get you straight into the pub or club: amber means you will  
receive a drug information pack; red may result in your being refused  
entry, and possibly searched.

The test is voluntary, but customers will be refused entry if they do  
not take part. Or, given the police track record with knife-related  
stop and searches, it is just possible that a refusal to agree to  
being checked would itself be grounds to search you. After all, if you  
have nothing to hide...

Similar hijinks have been going on recently in Lancaster, as police  
and the Lancashire County Council’s Safer Travel Unit began stop and  
search procedures on members of the public travelling to and from  
Lancaster bus station.

This ‘Gateway Check’ involved the use of two airport-style metal  
detectors and handheld metal detectors, along with the frisking of  
travellers as they left the station.

One officer explained: "Due to recent anti-social behaviour and knife  
crime on buses we are trialling this method as an attempt to deter  
knife crime, we are currently randomly searching every fifth person."

Historically, police powers to stop and search have been limited to  
instances where there is reasonable suspicion that they might find  
something you shouldn't have on you: stolen goods, drugs, an offensive  
weapon, any article made or adapted for use in certain offences (for  
example a burglary or theft), knives, or items which could damage or  
destroy property.

Over the last few years, that limit has been seriously eroded. Section  
44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allows arbitrary stop and search with the  
purpose to prevent terrorism when authorisation is given by a  
commander of Metropolitan Police. This builds upon section 60 of the  
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which permits searches for  
offensive weapons or dangerous instruments when authorisation by an  
officer of the rank of inspector or above is given in relation to a  
specific place and time period.

In general, court rulings have tended to uphold those powers, rather  
than diminish them - so even if you have done nothing wrong, failure  
to comply with a police search may now be an offence in itself.

Reports from locations as far apart as Wellingborough, North Wales and  
Ipswich all suggest that this is an approach to policing that is  
increasingly finding favour with police across the country.

Meanwhile, the issue of surveillance on railway stations can be  
attested to by Reg staff, who regularly brave the sniffer dogs of  
Waterloo in their journey to work each morning.

For once, we haven’t asked the police to comment on the above. We  
could reasonably expect some canned statements about the need to  
reduce risk, increase public safety, and further explanation that if  
we haven’t done anything wrong, we would have nothing at all to fear.

Instead, we will repeat a comment made by Head of the Police  
Improvements Agency, Peter Neyroud: Peter Neyroud, chief executive of  
the NPIA. In a Policing paper earlier this year, he and his fellow  
authors argued that "factual questions about the effectiveness of new  
technologies... in detecting and preventing crime should not, and  
cannot, be separated from ethical and social questions surrounding the  
impact which these technologies might have upon civil liberties".

In the end, these measures will either become an acceptable everyday  
part of British policing, or they will thoroughly alienate Police and  
public. Only time will tell. ®