10 January 2010

The Police may have a difficult job to do, but they also have clear rules and guidelines that they must abide by. Unfortunately, some of the time either they do not know or fully understand those rules or, even worse, on occasions they do understand them and ignore them anyway.

Even worse are some Police Community Support Officers many of whom, having received the minimum of training, are then let loose on the public with boundless enthusiasm and a curious belief that they have a licence to clean up the streets in the course of which, more or less anything goes.

Add to this the massive expansion in police powers over the past 10 years and you could, although acting quite innocently, be in the firing line and be subject of unwarranted attention or threats of prosecution. Who would have thought a few years ago that you might have been stopped and questioned under terrorist powers simply for taking photographs of tourist attractions?

Individual officers, like many others in the public sector, can be pushed into cutting corners to achieve some government target or other. The problem for you as a member of the public, parent, etc. is that you may find yourself caught up in a situation where your rights are being infringed.

We strongly believe that the Police need to be held to account and should not be able to get away with ignoring the law or their proper procedures and we can advise you where this may have happened and advise you what you can do about it.