Antrim Guardian - News - PSNI trampling over young people’s rights

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PSNI trampling over young people’s rights

Thursday, 4 February 2010

A 'DEEPLY shocked' member of Antrim District Policing Partnership has accused the police of 'abusing their powers' to harass young people.
Councillor Annemarie Logue believes that the authority to stop and search is being routinely exploited to hound innocent teens, inadvertently fomenting a deep mistrust in the powers of law and order.
The Sinn Fein rep has revealed that the powers enshrined in Article 44 of the Terrorism Act have been used scores of times across Antrim in recent months - though startling new figures suggest that they have led to few convictions.
Instead, said Councillor Logue, they have been used to 'bludgeon young people into submission' - and trust is 'evaporating fast'.
Between July and September 2009 police stopped and searched 173 people in the Antrim area under Section 44. Incredibly there were only two arrests.
Three weeks ago the European Court of Human Rights ruled that stop and search without clear grounds for suspicion was open to abuse, and therefore 'not in accordance with the law'.
The Government are appealing the ruling, but until that is heard Councillor Logue believes that the PSNI should suspend the use of 'this divisive power immediately'.
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“The European Court of Human Rights said that two people from London had their rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights violated. This violation was a direct result of the two being stopped and questioned in 2003 under Section 44 of the British Government's Terrorism Act," she explained.
“The PSNI used the same legislation to stop hundreds of people last year, most of whom were not arrested or charged.
“Many of those stopped and harassed in a number of these cases were stopped because of their political opinion or background.
“This abuse of power amounts to political policing and damages the credibility of police forces that use them as well as community relations.
“This is a view that is shared even with the British Government's own independent reviewer of this legislation. Already in England it is accepted that the use of Section 44 powers has had a 'negative impact' on relations between the community and the police."