Bag's Rants

Stop and Search eroding trust?

Interesting question this. Do search powers erode trust?

Not in my opinion. I think a Police officers right to search someone is a requirement which is actually badly managed by the Police forces. The rules could be tightened up and still leave latitude for a reasonable search.

Stop and Search under the Terrorism Act must therefore be a Police Officers wet dream. It's a get out of jail card they can use any time they want. No need to justify it and I bet they don't even get asked to do so. If they catch anyone with drugs, a knife or anything then in they come. It must be improving the detection rates tremendously. Won't catch any terrorists though. It seems Hampshire have used this 4400 times since July 2005. Wonder how many of those were arrested under any terrorism law? Sorry, shouldn't ask that. It seems to be irrelevant. How many were subsequently charged under a terrorism law?

It's the abuse of search powers that erodes trust. More and more people are becoming concerned about the way this country is turning into Soviet Russia. It won't be long before even those sheep who say 'If you have nothing to hide it is not a problem.' will be thinking again. The Jews walked meekly into the camps in the 1940s. I bet they thought the same way.

Won't be long before every citizen scurries the other way when a copper comes along. Even those with nothing to hide. Based on this I vote we don't put more coppers on the beat.

posted by Bag @ 12:29 am