The Stop and Search Powers in Section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act PDF

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essay question summary on Police and Criminal Evidence Act...

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The Stop and Search Powers in Section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984) is necessary and uncontroversial. Critically discuss this statement.

The stop and search powers were implemented in 1984, to give the police greater authority to reprimand any suspicious bodies and search them as well as their vehicles to detain any unlawful items they may have in their possession. For example, in section 1, subsection (3) to (5) the Act gives police agencies the powers to search ‘(i)any person or vehicle; (ii)anything which is in or on a vehicle, for stolen or prohibited articles’. However, section 3 ‘does not give a constable power to search a person or vehicle or anything in or on a vehicle unless he has reasonable grounds for suspecting that he will find stolen or prohibited articles’1. This section of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984) can be deemed uncontroversial as the ‘constable must identify himself …and tell the suspect the object of and reason for the search’2, therefore enforcing that the constable must have legitimate reasons for carrying out the procedure for stop and search. Having said this, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 differs from this view as a police constable can stop and search if authorised by a senior officer3. Many human rights activists would state, that the Police and Criminal Evidence Act is necessary for the police to offer protection to the citizens of the country as they support our ability to be free from violence.

However, there has been evidence of the police force abusing their powers and not complying with the rules and guidelines set out by the Act. ‘A report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary found that one in seven stops may be unlawful, despite promises by police chiefs to reform’ 4, thus showcasing the police forces breach in acting lawfully. This was seen in the case of Osman v Southwark Crown Court 1999 ADMN 1 July 5, whereby a police officer breached his duty and acted outside the guidelines of the Act by failing to provide his name, number, and station. Additionally ‘the lead inspector on the HMIC report, Steve Otter stated ‘fair use of stop and search was a “litmus test of legitimacy” for the police, and for ethnic minority Britons, use of the power was a symbol of their perception that there is a culture of unlawful discrimination’ 6. Similarly, in 2005, the police force in the city of Stoke on Trent ‘implemented the Practice Oriented Package (POP), an initiative produced by the Government’s Office for Criminal Justice Reform setting out best practice in stop and search’ and found that ‘the disproportionality ratio dropped to 1.5 when comparing black and white people’7 as opposed to the proportion of 4.5 before the initiative. 1 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/60/section/1 2 http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page? handle=hein.journals/jcriml50&div=34&start_page=289&collection=journals&set_as_cursor=2&men_tab=srchresults – pg 290

3 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/33/section/60 4 https://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/feb/11/uk-police-forces-still-abusing-stop-and-search-powers 5 https://login.westlaw.co.uk/maf/wluk/app/document? &srguid=i0ad6ada70000015f6efd4e74cf3d1f8d&docguid=I7B751AD0E43611DA8FC2A0F0355337E9&hitguid=I7B751AD0E4 3611DA8FC2A0F0355337E9&rank=1&spos=1&epos=1&td=1&crumb-action=append&context=13&resolvein=true 6 https://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/feb/11/uk-police-forces-still-abusing-stop-and-search-powers

7https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/ehrc_stop_and_search_report.pdf (pg 49)

To conclude, the Stop and Search Powers in Section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984) is necessary but not uncontroversial. Ever since the stop and search powers were enforced, the police force has been surrounded by controversy of basing their searches on racial prejudices and discriminating against certain ethnicities. It is necessary, to offer protection to the citizens of the country to prevent them from experiencing crimes and violence and therefore there is an integral purpose for the police force to have the ability to stop and search individuals whom they pose a threat....