Critically analyse Police powers on Stop and Search, Arrest and Detention.

Authors Avatar

PACE 1984

Critically analyse Police powers on Stop and Search,

Arrest and Detention

The report carried out by Lord Scarman included several recommendations about reforming the law, community relations and policing practices to help tackle the central problems which caused civil disorders.
As part of these recommendations, Lord Scarman advocated a system for members of the public from local communities to inspect the way the police detained people in their custody.
Originally referred to as lay visiting, independent custody visiting is the system that has been developed to meet this recommendation

At the time, the majority of the Scarman Reports’ recommendations, found favour with the opinion makers and were included in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act which was made law in the mid-1980. This act of parliament set out the way in which the police officers must carry out their roles and stated specific codes of practices for police procedures. It also established the rights of people who are detained by the police for a suspected crime or offence.

Police powers to stop and search are contained in s.1-7 of PACE, though there are other statutes such as the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 which gives the police powers to stop and search people in connection with particular offences.

S.1 of PACE 1984 gives police officers the right to stop and search a person or a vehicle in a public or a place to which the public have access, provided that the police officers have reasonable grounds to suspect that they will find stolen or prohibited articles.

The term “reasonable grounds” is based on the objective test, based on what an ordinary person may think is reasonable. The power of stop and search is legal only if a reasonable person would suspect that there are stolen or prohibited articles to find, meaning that police officers cannot randomly stop and search people if they feel there is a possibility that they might find a prohibited article.

The code of practice A governs the guidance on when these powers should be operated; the code stressed the fact that police officers must not act just because of a persons characteristics. The code states-

“A  persons colour, age, hairstyle or manner of dress, or the fact that he is known to have previous convictions for possessions of an unlawful article, cannot be used alone or in combination with each other as the sole basis of which to search that person”.

There have been many criticisms against the police and their powers of stop and search, the code specifically states that “A persons colour... cannot be used… as the sole basis of which to search that person”, even though this is so there have been several complaints by high-profile black people, such as Neville Lawrence, who has been on many or so occasions been stopped by the police because of the colour of his skin. Research by Sanders 1993 showed that knowledge that someone had a previous conviction was one of the main reasons which led police officers to stop and search.

As mentioned above apart from Pace there are also other Acts of Parliament which give the police officers the right to stop and search in special circumstances,, for example the Terrorism Act 2000 gives powers to stop and search where there id reasonable suspicion of involvement in terrorism. Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 gives the police additional power of the right to stop and search in anticipation of violence. This can only occur where it has been authorized by a senior police officer who reasonably believes that serious violence may take place in any locality in his area.

Anyone may arrest a person who is reasonably suspected of committing an arrestable offence under s.24 of PACE. This section applies to situations which involve or may involve, someone committing an arrestable offence. An arrestable offence is generally one where the sentence is set by law, or where the sentence could be at least five years in custody.

Many of the police powers set under s.24 require that the police have reasonable grounds for suspecting the defendant. In the case of Castorina v Chief Constable of Surrey the Court of Appeal (COA) held that this did not mean that there had to be sufficient grounds which would make an ordinary cautious person think that the defendant was guilty. It was enough if the facts could lead an ordinary cautious person to think the defendant was guilty.

Join now!

Section 25 of PACE allows the police to arrest for any offence where the suspects name and address cannot be obtained or there are reasonable grounds to believe that the name and address given by the defendant may in any way be false.

Section 25 also provides the police grounds for arrest if the believe it is necessary to prevent the person from, causing physical injury to him/herself or any other person, suffering physical injury, causing loss or damage to property, committing an offence against public decency or causing an unlawful obstruction of the highway

The Criminal ...

This is a preview of the whole essay