Now you can be arrested for any offence (U.K.)

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Now you can be arrested for any offence

By John Steele, Crime Correspondent

(Filed: 29/12/2005)

 

 

Police are to be given sweeping powers to arrest people for every

offence, including dropping litter, failure to wear a seat belt and

other minor misdemeanours.

 

The measures, which come into force on Jan 1, are the biggest

expansion in decades of police powers to deprive people of their liberty

 

 

At present, officers can generally arrest people if they suspect them

of committing an offence which carries at least five years in prison.

They will now have the discretion to detain someone if they suspect

any offence and think that an arrest is " necessary " .

 

The civil liberties organisation Liberty said the change represented

" a fundamental shift " in power from the public to the police and the

state and was open to misuse.

 

It pointed out that powers to stop people under anti-terrorist

legislation, which the public had been reassured would be applied

correctly and sparingly, were wrongly used against an elderly heckler

at the Labour Party conference in the autumn.

 

There are also worries that the new arrest laws will create major

problems for constables, whose judgment on the " necessity " of an

arrest is likely to be routinely challenged in the courts,

particularly under human rights legislation.

 

Officers will have to satisfy themselves of " a person's involvement or

suspected involvement or attempted involvement in the commission of a

criminal offence " and that there are " reasonable grounds for believing

that the person's arrest is necessary " .

 

They will also have the power to take digital photographs of suspects

on the street when they have been arrested, detained or given a fixed

penalty notice.

 

The Home Office said the move would save time spent in taking suspects

to a police station to be photographed and that it would " greatly

reduce the ability of suspects to deny that they were the person in

question " .

 

But many people fear that the move will create a vast database of

photographs of innocent citizens which could be kept even if the

police decide not to take any further action against them.

 

The Government says that the existing legal framework on arrestable

and non-arrestable offences has become " bewilderingly " complex and

needs to be simplified.

 

A Home Office spokesman said yesterday that arrests would not soar

because, in addition to the necessity test, many offences would be

covered by fixed penalty notices.

 

Police chiefs have made clear that, although they were concerned about

the current system, they did not ask for all offences to be arrestable.

 

Liberty said that three years ago the Home Office and the Cabinet

Office had advocated " a definitive list " of arrestable offences and

enhanced training, not a move towards all offences being arrestable.

 

Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said:

" Officers need firm guidance on how to use these new powers. Nobody

wants to live in a society in which every offence results in people

being dragged down to the police station. "

 

Edward Garnier, the Tories' spokesman on home affairs, said: " The

effect of the new arrangements will need to be monitored closely. "

 

Like Liberty, he referred to the ejection from the Labour conference

of Walter Wolfgang, 82, a refugee from Nazi Germany and a Labour Party

member since 1948, and how a policeman citing the Terrorism Act

detained him when he tried to get back into the hall.

 

Hazel Blears, the Home Office minister, said: " It is vital that the

police are equipped with the powers they need to enable them to do

their jobs properly and effectively. The powers need to be updated to

reflect modern policing priorities and the changing nature of criminal

activity.

 

" We need to maintain the crucial balance between the powers of the

police and an individual's rights.

 

" The introduction of a single, rationalised power of arrest simplifies

arrest powers and requires the police officer to consider the

necessity of the arrest. "

 

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