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6.1 Safeguards applicable to all personal search
powers
6.2 Stop and Search of vehicles and/or persons
6.3 Sections 43 & 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000
6.4 Intimate and Strip Searches
6.5 Other Powers of Search
Before any of the above search powers listed below are exercised, the constable must inform you of the following:
a) The constable’s name and the police station to which he is attached.
b) The object of the proposed search
c) The constable’s grounds for proposing to make it.
d) The fact that you are entitled to a copy of the search.
If the police do not provide you with the above information, then the search is illegal. This means that you would be able to sue them for assault and / or battery. Evidence obtained illegally, however, is admissible in criminal proceedings at the discretion of the court.
Police have the powers to stop and search you or your vehicle under either Section 1 of PACE, Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 or Sections 43 and 44 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 2000.
Under Section 1 of PACE the police may search you and / or your vehicle, if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that you have stolen goods, offensive weapons or for articles used for burglary or theft. Under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, they may now also search you for items they suspect are being used for criminal damage.
Unless you are the driver of a vehicle you do not have to give your name and address. You can be searched in public places, or on private land if this is “readily accessible” to the public at the time of the search, but you may not be searched in a dwelling.
Always ask the police what the reasonable suspicion is – it has to be something more than the fact, for example, that you are a known protestor.
In public places they can only search outer clothing, more thorough searches must be made out of sight, in a police van or station.
Reasonable minimum force may be used to search you. You are entitled to get a report of the search from the police station within a year.
Under section 60 of the CJA a police officer of the rank of superintendent or above may authorize all persons and vehicles within a locality to be searched regardless of suspicion, if serious violence is expected in an area. This power may be exercised by an inspector if he believes violence is imminent and no superintendent is available.
The police do not need to have reasonable suspicion that you are carrying an offensive weapon to search you under Section 60.
The “safeguards” (above), which require that the police have to give you certain information prior to the search, apply to Section 60 as they do to any other search. The police have been known to say that they don’t need to give this information for a Section 60 search. Section 2 PACE, however, states that the information must be given before the exercise of any search, apart from a couple of search powers which are not relevant here.
The definition of "terrorism" under the Terrorism Act 2000 is defined
so as to include serious damage to property as well as violence to people. The
use of such violence must also be designed to influence the government or to
intimidate the public or a section of the public, and it must be used for the
purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause.
It's clear therefore that certain types of animal rights and other protest actions
- eg arson and possibly even serious public order offences such as violent disorder
- could fall within this definition of terrorism, and therefore enable the police
to use the associated draconian powers against them conferred by the act. Although
we're not aware of this happening to animal rights protestors yet, the metropolitan
police in London have used the blanket search power conferred by Section 44
of the act against anti-war protestors in London and the power to do this has
recently been upheld in the High Court. This is not too surprising in the current
political climate.
This states that a constable may stop and search a person whom he reasonably suspects to be a terrorist to discover whether they have in their possession anything which may constitute evidence that they are a terrorist.
This gives the police wider search powers than they would enjoy under Section 1 of Pace or Section 60 CJA above. Basically they can search you for just about anything.
Unlike Section 44 (below) the police officer must have reason to suspect the person to be a terrorist.
An authorisation under this subsection authorises any constable in uniform to stop a person or a vehicle in an area or at a place specified in the authorisation, and to search the person or vehicle and its occupants for articles associated with terrorism.
This is a blanket search power - much like Section 60 CJA above - and does
not therefore require that the constable reasonably suspects the presence of
articles used for terrorism.
The authorisation has to be given by a police officer of the rank assistant
chief constable (or ‘commander’ in London) and may remain in place
for up to 28 days.
The police are obliged to provide you with a written statement that you or the vehicle was stopped, if you apply for it within 12 months.
Certain safeguards apply to this and most other searches conducted by the police,
according to which the police have to provide certain information during and
after the search – see page 10.
Failure to stop when required to do so or obstructing the police during the
exercise of these powers is an offence punishable by either a fine or 6 months
in prison or both. A constable can arrest anyone he reasonably suspects to be
committing or about to commit any offence under this section.
An intimate search means a search which consists of the physical examination of a person’s body orifices. A strip search is a search involving the removal of more than outer clothing.
Intimate and strip searches can only be carried out on persons in police custody.
An “intimate search” must be authorised by a superintendent who
must reasonably believe either:
(i) that a detained person may have concealed on him anything which he could use to cause physical injury to himself or to others, and which he might so use while he is in police detention or in the custody of the court, or
(ii) that a detained person has a Class A drug concealed on him and was in possession of it before his arrest.
An officer may not authorize an intimate search of a person for anything unless he reasonably believes that this is the only way it can be found.
Generally an intimate search can only be carried out by a medical practitioner unless the superintendent does not consider it practicable and the search is to take place under (i) above. A search under (ii) can only be carried out at a hospital, surgery or other medical premises.
A strip search may only take place if the custody officer considers it necessary to remove an article that the detained person would not be allowed to keep.
Where either an intimate or a strip search is carried out by a police officer, the officer must be of the same sex as the person searched. No other non-medical person of the opposite sex must be present and no person should be there whose presence is not necessary.
There are a few other powers of personal search available to the police under other legislation which does not directly concern activists. These include the power under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to search for controlled substances and the power under the Firearms Act 1968 to search for firearms.
The same safeguards listed at the top of this section apply to these searches as well.
[<<5. Cautions and Conditional Cautions ][Contents][7. Police powers to search premises>>]
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