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There Was An Extension Of Police Powers By Part V Of The Terrorism Act 2000, ...

There was an extension of police powers by Part V of the Terrorism Act 2000, Part 10 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act (ACSA) 2001, ss.5 and 8 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 and Part II of the Terrorism Act 2006. Thus what the foregoing highlights is that on the one hand the government is attempting to prevent racist attacks and incitement of such feelings through the RRHA 2006 but also widening the discretionary powers of the police.
It is exactly these kinds of ‘beneficent' aims that Justice Brandeis was talking about that can end up causing infringements on liberty. In the recent case of A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department the courts were faced with a Human Rights challenge to the provisions under the ACSA 2001 held them in breach. It was described by Lady Justice Arden as ‘decision that will be used as a point of reference by courts all over the world for decades to come, even when the age of terrorism has passed. It is a powerful statement by the highest court in the land of what it means to live in a society where the executive is subject to the rule of 1aw'. These decisions which have thwarted the aims of the government to a certain extent have an undertone that liberty is at stake. In this work we attempt to look at all of the foregoing issues in respect of the stop and search powers of the police.
It is said that the ‘exercise of the police power to stop and search members of the public is one that has long excited public controversy'. There are numerous facets about the power which excite this controversy however far and away the most controversial issue has been its disproportionate use on ethnic minorities. This work is going to do a thorough analysis of the police stop and search powers looking at a number of issues. Many commentators take the now infamous Macpherson Inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence, which argued that the stop and search figures highlighted a ‘clear core conclusion of racist stereotyping'. This was placed against the overall conclusion that ‘institutional racismexists both in the Metropolitan Police Service and in other Police Services and other institutions countrywide'. In particular it highlighted that they believed there had been a systemic ‘failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin'.
This work wants to look at the stop and search research that is currently available to see whether this problem still exists or has changed. We also carried out an empirical study ourselves which we wish to incorporate into this analysis. One item of particular interest will be to note whether the rise of what various studies have called ‘Islamophobia', which is largely exacerbated by the recent terror attacks and underpins the need for the RRH 2006, has manifested itself in the police.


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