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Human Rights Court
Savages UK Stop & Search Terror Powers
Landmark decision clears the way for restoration
of privacy, right to protest, photograph unhindered
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 The
use of "counter-terrorism" stop and search laws by
the police in the UK has been ruled
illegal by the European Court of Human Rights,
a decision that paves the way for protesters, photographers
and everyday citizens to fight back against such gross invasions
of privacy.
Under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, police can stop
and search anyone without reasonable suspicion.
The court in Strasbourg has referred to that power as not in
"accordance with the law", and a violation of article
eight – the right to respect for private and family life.
Judges noted that there is no grounds for considering the powers
"necessary", and that they are only "expedient",
adding that there is a "clear risk of arbitrariness in
granting such broad discretion" to a police officer.
They also stated that the searching clothing and belongings
interferes with the right to privacy as it involves an element
of humiliation and embarrassment.
The use of the powers and their authorisation is "neither
sufficiently circumscribed, nor subject to adequate legal safeguards
against abuse", according to the court.
The court also highlighted a lack of judicial oversight, stating
"The absence of any obligation on the part of the officer
to show a reasonable suspicion made it almost impossible to
prove that the power had been improperly exercised".
The full judgment is online here.
The freedom stripping powers, which were initially conceived
only to be used in emergency situations, have come under intense
scrutiny recently following the publication of multiple sets
of figures highlighting huge increases in stops with a relatively
miniscule success rate.
In May 2009, data
released to the BBC revealed that the Metropolitan
Police in London used section 44 of the Terrorism Act more than
170,000 times in 2008 to stop people in the capital. That figure
equated to stopping and searching a member of the public every
three minutes under terrorism laws.
The figures represented a more than 140% increase on 2007 numbers.
Of all the stops in 2008, only 65 led to arrests for terror
offences, a success rate of just 0.035%. Furthermore, when you
take into account how many of those arrests have translated
into convictions, according to the Home Office, you come up
with a round figure of 0.0%.
A separate Freedom of Information Act request in 2009 also
revealed that the use of the stop and search power has increased
exponentially by over
ten times in less than ten years.
Furthermore, Ministry
of Justice statistics, published in mid 2008, revealed
that from 2006-2007 police used their powers to stop (but not
search) nearly two million members of the public and demand
they account for their behavior or actions, a rise of one third
from the previous year.
This meant that in just one year around 3.5% of the entire
British population was stopped in the street by the police under
suspicion of terror related offences.
While not resulting in the prevention of any terrorism,
the section 44 powers have been most notably used against the
82-year-old Walter Wolfgang for heckling
Jack Straw at the Labour Conference; Sally Cameron
for walking
on a cycle-path in Dundee; the 80-year-old John
Catt for being caught on CCTV passing a demonstration in Brighton;
the 11-year-old
Isabelle Ellis-Cockcroft for accompanying her parents
to an anti-nuclear protest; and a cricketer on his way to a
match over his possession of a bat.
More recently, Scotland
Yard admitted that its officers have been photographing
children who are stopped and searched, even after they have
been found to be innocent, and keeping the pictures on a database
for "intelligence-gathering purposes".
In the past we have reported on instances where
police have admitted stop and search records are permanently
retained.
The Home Office guide to stop and search states that "if
they don’t find anything, your details will be recorded
for monitoring purposes, and you’ll be allowed
to go."
The government has continued to
push for greater stop and search powers for police.
Section 44 of the Terrorism Act bestows exceptional
powers on the police to stop and search at random, once a particular
geographical area has been designated by a chief officer as
one that might be targeted by terrorists and authorised as such
by the Home Secretary. The government has since extended
this power to stop and search WITHOUT REASONABLE
SUSPICION to include "troubled areas", which since
2001 has included the whole of Greater London.
As of February 17 2009, Section
76 of the Counter Terrorism Act also prohibits
photographing police and permits the arrest of anyone found
"eliciting, publishing or communicating information"
relating to members of the armed forces, intelligence services
and police officers, which is "likely to be useful to a
person committing or preparing an act of terrorism".
Essentially, under anti-terror laws, anyone caught photographing
police could face a fine or a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
As we have
recently reported, this section of the act is being
used primarily to target journalists covering protests, who
say they are being targeted by police surveillance officers
more so than the actual protesters. The law has also been used
against tourists snapping pictures of landmarks and members
of the public documenting police misconduct.
A recent report by the Joint
Select Committee on Human Rights confirmed that
journalists and protesters were the primary targets of increased
police misuse of anti-terror laws.
This week's ruling from the Human Rights Court
refers to the case of Kevin Gillan and Pennie Quinton who were
detained for attending a protest
outside Europe’s biggest arms fair in London
in September 2003.
Having finally achieved justice after more than
six years of pursuing the matter, the pair were awarded €33,850
(£30,400) in costs and expenses. Gillan and Quinton, who
like many others could have just walked away, should be commended
as heroes for their efforts to defend freedom in the UK.
Anti-terror laws are intended for use on the general
public, they always have been, and now we are seeing the rotten
fruits of continued blind acceptance contaminate every section
of society in this country.
Gillan and Quinton have paved the way for others
who have been the victims of the misuse of these draconian terrorism
laws to fight back and help push for a complete rejection of
such abuses of power.
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