6th May 2009
Police Curtail Use of Stop and Search but ID Cards still going through
By Mark Hanson
Today there has been news from the police that they will be severely curtailing their use of indiscriminate stop and search powers. Such powers have been widely used in London, resulting in 154,293 searches since May 2007, and have been widely criticized as inappropriate and disproportionate. Very few arrests have resulted from searches carried out under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and it is not thought that any convictions have ever been made.
A major concern has been that these powers have been used indis-criminately against black and Muslim men, thus alienating these communities and actually increasing the threat of terrorism rather than diminishing it.
Yet further concern must focus on the practice of police in using counter-terrorism legislation to target peaceful protesters. Whilst Rabel welcomes any reduction in unwarranted stop and search, we echo the sentiment of Liberty in saying that Parliament must urgently reconsider much of the legislation passed since 9/11 and 7/7 as being severely damaging to civil rights.
Isabella Sankey, Liberty's policy director, said: "It is clear that the misuse of these powers against peaceful protesters and their disproportionate use on ethnic minorities has undermined trust and confidence. We welcome any operational restraint in their use but surely parliament must tighten up the law."
The Home Secretary’s climbdown in announcing that the DNA samples of innocent people will be destroyed is another welcome development, as is the decision not to create the hitherto planned “mega-database” of every telecommunication in the UK, yet it is worrying that the Home Secretary seems intent on pushing through other potentially damaging projects such as the ID card scheme.
The news that is coming through at the moment seems to be that the UK Government wants to push and bend internationally recognised standards of civil liberties as far as possible. That is progress from the previous situation where they were actually broken, yet still it is not enough.
