Legal use of Terrorism Act 2000 44(2)
Posted .
In follow up to my previous post. So I complained to the IPCC. After a number of initially dismissive letters back and forth, I started to get some thoughtful responses. One clarified that
Under [section 44(2) of the Terrorism Act 2000] officers do not need to have reasonable grounds to suspect involvement in terrorism.
This prompted a measured response on my part and now I have received a final letter from a DI of the British Transport Police. The letter acknowledges the recent European judgements, claims that
the vast majority of officers do use the powers of search with a genuine belief that that they are protecting the public
(annotations mine) and that
whether this as been the correct method of prevention perhaps only time and hindsight will tell.
(I’m not going to reproduce it here because the letter appears to be personally written, rather than stock or secretary written.)
Well, I’m happy with that. Not happy, exactly, but at least it’s honest. My beef is no longer with the BTP.
Comments
Cj Richard
Posted at .
OMG, that Pseudopod podcast looks totally great!
Cai Wingfield
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Yeah, it’s pretty fun :) Also, you might like its "sister” podcast Escape Pod. It’s similar, but with sci-fi!
Will Wybrow
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Did they search your pockets? Get you up against the wall and frisk you? This sounds really terrifying :/
Cai Wingfield
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Pocket search yes, and a pat-down, but it wasn’t aggressive. At the time, I wasn’t that scared because they were insistent rather than aggressive, and I didn’t question at the time whether or not they had the authority to do so. Only subsequently did I look up the Act and think harder about it. To be honest, I was most shaken by being woken by strangers at 1:45 am while still listening to horror stories.
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