On the beat

25 January 2012 '“ Pushing the boundaries of freedom of expression

The question of whether we have a right to anonymity has once again been brought to the forefront of debates not just in the context of the protesting where many protestors, including the 'Occupy' movement, have been seen wearing the 'V for Vendetta' mask, but also in the forum of blogs and twitter accounts written by serving police officers.

Last week it was revealed by James Harding, The Times editor, during questioning at the Leveson inquiry, which is investigating the ethics and standards of the press, that Patrick Foster, an ex-Times journalist, had hacked into the personal account of DC Richard Horton, the author of an anonymous police blog, NightJack. An interim injunction had been granted to the author of the blog on 28 May 2009, but was overturned on the 16 June 2009 by Mr Justice Eady who held that 'blogging is essentially a public rather than a private activity', and that the author of the blog had no 'reasonable expectation of privacy'. But, I feel that if the judge had known at the time that it was through hacking and not as The Times had claimed 'by the process of deduction and detective work, mainly using information on the internet' that The Times may have struggled to lift the cloak of anonymity and that NightJack may still have been blogging today.

The Orwell prize-winning blog was not just seen as a commentary on frontline policing but as a vital 'source' of information to the public. Many of his blogs highlighted issues that were in the public interest and needed to be debated. That theme has continued in numerous anonymous police blogs and tweets and was the subject of a tweet by PC Nick Manning, who revealed that in October of last year there were only three police officers available to cover a large area of north Dorset. Although he used his own identity and as a result has been subjected to disciplinary proceedings by his police force, the public had a right to know this information and it is important that the public interest test is preserved.

One way of preserving the test would be to recognise the right of anonymity as a human right, especially in the current climate of protests where many would be hindered from exercising their freedom of expression if exposed. The ideology behind NightJack and now mostly anonymous police tweeters is pushing the boundaries of freedom of expression into an arena that is unknown and has readily been challenged by protestors.

So I find it ironic that police officers have taken a lead in promoting the concept of anonymity and are reluctant to give up their right, when they are the first ones to 'unmask the anonymous' and lobby the government for more powers to deny others the same right.

9 January 2012 - Shaking off the racism stigma

The twitter furore that gripped the country last Thursday, 5 January 2012, following the misrepresentation of Diane Abbott's 'divide and rule' tweet reignited the debate on race and most specifically the question of 'What is racism?'

In 1999 the Macpherson report labelled the Metropolitan Police 'institutionally racist' and made 70 recommendations which the panel of experts hoped would improve police relations with the black and Asian communities. I use the word 'hope' as many of the recommendations were not followed, most significantly of those was the promotion of black and Asian police officers to senior policing posts, which to date has not been achieved. Assistant deputy commissioner of the Met Cressida Dick acknowledged last week that it was a 'matter of huge regret' that it took nearly two decades to convict the murderers of Stephen Lawrence and that the police force has 'transformed' since. But when you look at the evidence on the causes of the August riots it is difficult to see how the police force has 'transformed', as many in the black and Asian communities still face the same prejudice that the young ethnic minorities faced two decades ago: the disproportionate use of stop-and-search powers against them.

Matt Delito, a Metropolitan Police officer who has written about his encounter with a young black suspect during a stop-and-search in The Telegraph on 4 January 2012, states that 'it would be easy to label me as a racist'. Although it is refreshing to hear that some police officers, such as Delito, can see the damage that their actions are having on communities through the use of stop-and-search, that does not go far enough to remedy the problem. The home secretary at the 'Reading the Riots' conference in December 2011 informed the audience that she had asked the Association of Chief Police Officers to look at best practice in the use of stop-and-search. It is hoped that ACPO will be able to take on board the comments that have been made about the abuse of the power and the sense of criminalisation that it creates. But I have a feeling that even ACPO's intervention will not change the actions of the police officers on the streets.

You may think that I'm too pessimistic in my views but if you look at the pattern of stop-and-search over the last 30 years it is difficult to see what lessons the police have learnt. The 'sus' laws in operation in 1981 are no different to the routine authorisations of section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which are used more extensively against black and Asian communities. Their neighbourhoods are targeted as 'high-risk crime' areas and anyone in that community is considered to be a suspect without the need for reasonable suspicion. So is this not racism?

Dr Richard Stone, who was one of the advisers to the Macpherson Inquiry, claims that it is 'racial profiling' and that it should be treated as a crime of misusing public resources. Whether any officer would be charged for such a crime is yet to be seen but what it does show is that this 'tool of intimidation' has run its course. The justification that stop-and-search is necessary and effective in reducing knife crime can no longer be given any weight, especially as every year we see an increase in knife-related injuries and deaths among young black men. The increase in knife crime despite the use of section 60 stop-and-search powers is hard evidence that the policy to continue to stop-and-search young black men is based on an ulterior motive. Is that motive racism?

Delito says: 'Founded entirely on my record of stops and searches, and especially when contrasted against the demographic make-up of my borough overall, it would be easy to label me as a racist. To me, that is a genuine insult. I hate racism with every fibre of my being.' I'm sure that many officers would share the same views. But that does not change the perception within the black and Asian communities that the police are racist. Until the police are able to answer the question of 'What is racism?' it is difficult to see how there can be any meaningful developments in the fight against youth crime.

12 August 2011 - Keeping the flame alive

Is this the summer of protests? It definitely looks that way, and with protests, marches and demonstrations being organised on a weekly basis, it is time the government listened to the voices of the protestors and recognised the real damage that their reforms will have on the ordinary person.

Last month we saw the march to 'Defend the NHS' on its 63rd birthday and the month before the national strike on 30 June called by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), supported by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which lead to the closure of many schools and disruption at some airports as the UK Border Agency staff also joined the picket line.

The silence by Francis Maude, minister for the Cabinet Office, following the strike was priceless as he had previously rubbished the strike and had accused the strikers to have 'jumped the gun'. But it is his government that has jumped the gun, by pushing through austerity cuts without real consultation and not recognising the severe impact these reforms will have on hundreds of thousands of people. The controversial comments by Oliver Letwin, the coalition's policy minister, at a meeting with his constituencies over the weekend, that he is to instil 'some real discipline and some real fear' only goes to show that the government knows that they have a fight on their hands against the cuts and one that they may not win.

So the right to protest and strike against the cuts continues and with preparations being made in Manchester for the Tory conference in October. How is the government going to quell the air of resistance?

The scaremongering tactics to arrest non-violent protestors during protests included the 'snatch and grab' seen on 30 June of a young man outside Charing Cross train station. The reason why the young man was arrested is unknown but what is clear from the footage of the incident on Youtube is that a group of policeman forcibly removed him from where he was standing in the crowd and took him away from the area.

The rise of the pre-crime arrests of activists before royal weddings is another example and is a tactic that is used by the police to round up known activists regardless of whether a crime has been or will be committed. This new policy stems from the 'thought' of a possible crime rather than whether there is evidence that a crime is going to be committed and seems to be taken straight out of George Orwell's novel 1984 where it was the job of the thought police to uncover and punish thoughtcrime. The newsletter published on 29 July 2011 by Project Griffin, a police initiative which assesses the threat of terrorism in the City of Westminster, adds further weight to the thoughtcrime, as one of their initiatives is to report any information relating to anarchists to your local police.

These policies and tactics will not deter the protest movement which continues to gain momentum, but these need to be fought with the same vigour and force as the protests themselves. If it can be shown that the police tactics used are questionable or illegal then those arrests need to be challenged by lawyers at an early stage. Now is the time to mobilise an 'army of lawyers' against the 'army of police' to counter these practices, and the Lawyers' Activist Network is one step towards bringing together pro-protestor lawyers from across the country to provide crucial support to activists so that their right to protest is protected.

6 April 2011 - Speak now, or forever hold your truth

The tough new security measures that have been proposed by the home secretary to 'help [the police] to do their work' on the day of the royal wedding will signal the beginning of a policy that will be used to interfere with the right to protest beyond 29 April. Once these proposals come into force it will be difficult to stop the police abusing the powers that they have been given as we have previously witnessed with the disproportionate use of section 44 stop and search powers against protestors.

The new proposals will go as far as using 'football-style' banning orders for 'known hooligans' and the power to forcibly remove head and face wear at a protest. But what the new proposals do not set out is who will be classified as a 'known hooligan' and what rights will they have to challenge their classification? Without knowing the answers to these questions it is likely that many protestors could be subjected to an unacceptable interference will their right to protest.

The police, in my opinion, are using this opportunity to redefine the landscape in which to protest and restrict this fundamental liberty which will see even more protesters classed as criminals. The new Metropolitan Police team, Operation Brontide, set up following the anti-cut demonstrations is a definite move by the police to crackdown on the right to protest, especially as it is hot on the heels of Operation Malone, which led to an unprecedented level of arrests of students across the country.

But, with many of these arrests now concluding in no further action, have the men behind Malone taken advantage of the situation? I feel they have and the distress that they have caused in criminalising the younger generation while they themselves 'live the good life' now needs to be scrutinised so that the same mistakes are not made again.

The damage and distrust that has then been created by their actions should not be underestimated and the news that 138 UK Uncut protestors have been charged with aggravated trespass over their sit-in at Fortnum & Mason on 26 March galvanises feelings among protestors that the law is being used and abused to fit ulterior motives. If this is the case, the police run the risk of discrediting their own investigations and opening up a chapter in policing that I thought was dead and buried.

The right to protest will live on whether the police like it or not, as many, like myself, will not let this cornerstone of our liberty be extinguished without a fight.

23 January 2011 - But officer!

The police are getting a bit of a rough time in the press at the moment. Not that I really care as it's most likely that they deserve it, especially if the stories are true.

Unless you've been on the moon this month, you will have heard about the collapsed trial of the six environmental protestors who were accused of conspiring to shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station and the subsequent allegations that have been made of an undercover officer, who had infiltrated their group as an agent provocateur. This case, along with the revelations that undercover officers are often promiscuous when carrying out their job, raises serious questions over covert policing and whether it is now time to shine a bright light on this area of law and order.

ACPO, the supervisory body, has now been stripped of its role and there are possibilities that common law actions for negligence and misfeasance in public office may follow suit. The former director of public prosecutions made damning comments about the accountability of covert operations and I would agree that at present accountability is scarce in this undercover world and that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) needs to be more tightly drafted so that activities that are carried out in the name of covert surveillance are proportionate.

It has only been a couple of months since the discovery of West Midlands Police's misguided Project Champion, which installed CCTV and ANPR cameras in east Birmingham, a predominately Muslim community. The chief constable made the best heart-felt apology he could in the circumstances and it has since been reported that the cameras will be removed '“ but at the estimated cost of £630,000. Was it worth it? I don't think so, and examples of these types of surveillance projects worry me as I don't think they are isolated cases.

Surveillance is out of control and with the enormous costs attached to running these projects there needs to be a greater degree of proportionately in the decision-making process before they are put in action. When they go wrong, they don't just damage the reputation of the police they damage the fabric of a free society and that takes a long time to heal.

The murky world of undercover policing has now left police officers exposed and the sacred veil that they used to hide behind is no longer there. Proportionate covert policing is the only way forward and this needs to be implemented sooner rather than later for the benefit of all.