Almost 1,700 people, also including car park attendants and dog wardens, already have powers to hand out a string of fines and even take photographs of low level offenders under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme.Hundreds more town hall staff to get police-style powers
"Arbeit Macht Frei"
But the Government has quietly announced it plans to review the scheme with chief police officers to see how it can be expanded further ...
Under CSAS, a chief constable can give employees of local authorities or private companies limited powers such as the right to hand out on-the-spot fines for offences including disorder, truancy and littering; stopping vehicles for roadside tests and confiscating alcohol.
They have their own uniform and badge and can demand names and addresses as well as take photographs of offenders.
There are 1,667 so-called "accredited persons" in England and Wales with 109 organisations, including 31 private companies, involved across 26 forces.
A further 478 civilians have been given the power to stop vehicles to check for out-of-date tax discs.
But a section buried in a recent Home Office neighbourhood policing strategy document read: "The Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) is a powerful way for the police to work with partners and to make the most out of other people whose job is to keep their neighbourhoods safe by giving them a limited range of powers to tackle ASB (anti-social behaviour) ... " ...
Telegraph 08 Mar 2010
Government officials have labelled environmental campaigners extremists and listed them alongside dissident Irish republican groups and terrorists inspired by al-Qaida in internal documents seen by the Guardian.Ministry of Justice lists eco-activists alongside terrorists
The guidance on extremism, produced by the Ministry of Justice, says: "The United Kingdom like many other countries faces a continuing threat from extremists who believe they can advance their aims by committing acts of terrorism."
It was sent to probation staff who were writing court reports or supervising a range of activists, including environmental protesters.
The advice lists "environmental extremists" alongside far-right activists, dissident Irish republicans, loyalist paramilitaries and al-Qaida-inspired extremists as among groups "currently categorised as extremist [that] may include those who have committed serious crime in pursuit of an ideology or cause" ...
Guardian 26 Jan 2010
Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the "routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.CCTV in the sky: police plan to use military-style spy drones
The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police ...
Guardian 23 Jan 2010
Liberty and mendacity
Charlie Falconer is concerned about what Cameron might do to the Human Rights legislation
The Tory position on human rights just doesn't add up. It puts Britain's reputation at risk ...DanotThe Guardian 14 Jan 2010
14 Jan 2010, 11:39PM
The Tory position on human rights just doesn't add up. It puts Britain's reputation at risk
Is that our reputation for fighting in illegal wars, assisting with torture and assasination?
Or is it our reputation for being run by a parliament full of cheating liars only looking out for themselves?
Or is it our reputation for being a surveillance society with no respect for privacy or such basic rights as habeus corpus?
Or is it the insane stuff like people being arrested for taking photos in public?
Or the reputation we have for shooting people six times in the head for jumping a ticket barrier?
Or is it some other reputation that I'm not aware of?
The tories are going to have to be very creative if they are going to make things worse.
20,000 council workers can enter homes without a warrant
The average local authority has 47 employees authorised to enter private homes, although some councils have hundreds of such inspectors.
The Home Office recently admitted that 1,043 different laws permit state inspectors to enter people’s homes and premises ...
Gordon Brown pledged more than two years ago to review the power of councils to enter people’s homes without warrant.
The Conservatives have also promised to scrap some laws permitting entry. However, neither of the main political parties has yet to announce firm proposals.
Big Brother Watch, a campaigning group, sent Freedom of Information requests to each of the country’s 431 local councils.
The 316 councils who responded admitted to employing a total of 14,793 people authorised to enter private homes ...
Telegraph 28 Dec 2009Big Brother Watch
Warning: Do not take this picture
Speaking to The Independent, Lord Carlile of Berriew said: "The police have to be very careful about stopping people who are taking what I would call leisure photographs, and indeed professional photographers. The fact that someone is taking photographs is not prima facie a good reason for stop and search and is very far from raising suspicion. It is a matter of concern and the police will know that they have to look at this very carefully," he added.
Lord Carlile's comments come just days after a BBC journalist was stopped and searched by two police community support officers as he took photographs of St Paul's Cathedral.
Days earlier Andrew White, 33, was stopped and asked to give his name and address after taking photographs of Christmas lights on his way to work in Brighton.
And in July Alex Turner, an amateur photographer from Kent, was arrested after he took pictures of Mick's Plaice, a fish and chip shop in Chatham.
Most of those stopped are told they are being questioned under Section 44, a controversial power which allows senior officers to designate entire areas of their police force regions as stop-and-search zones. The areas are chosen based on their likelihood of being a terrorism target.
More than 100 exist in London alone, covering areas such as the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and other landmarks.
Every train station in the UK is covered by a Section 44 order ...
Independent 03 December 2009Photographer films his own 'anti-terror' arrest
Photographers protest against police stop and search
From snapshot to Special Branch
Police search photographer using anti-terrorism laws
Terror suspects' DNA could be held for life
Terror suspects who are released without charge could face having their DNA profiles stored for life, it was revealed today.
Proposals announced by the Home Office could see the information on anyone arrested for terrorist offences but either not charged or acquitted kept indefinitely on the national database ...
Independent 11 November 2009Plan for DNA database to hold profiles for 6 years
Labour forces secret inquests Bill through the Commons
Secret inquests which will bar bereaved families and the public from attending hearings into controversial deaths were forced through Parliament last night.
The Government narrowly defeated opposition to the new powers by a majority of eight MPs in a highly charged vote in the House of Commons.
Under the measures ministers will be able to order that an inquest is replaced with a secret inquiry whenever they deem it necessary ...
Independent 10 November 2009Ministers cancel 'Big Brother' database
Arms protester on police spotter card was alleged infiltrator for BAE
He was listed as target X, a so-called domestic extremist included on a secret police spotter card as a regular attender at anti-arms demonstrations.
But today it emerged that X was not quite the threat police took him for – at least to the arms industry. In fact he was an alleged infiltrator from the arms company BAE.
The 2005 spotter card, published by the Guardian this week, contains a photograph of Martin Hogbin, who was national co-ordinator for the Campaign against the Arms Trade.
He was later accused of supplying information to a company linked to BAE's security department, but denied the allegation ...
Hogbin is the most unusual of almost a dozen people who have come forward after identifying themselves on the spotter card.
The others are a medley of environmental and anti-war activists including an ecologist, an artist, a carpenter, an anti-roads demonstrator and a camerawoman who has challenged her detention by police all the way to the European court of human rights at Strasbourg ...
Several of those who have come forward describe being targeted for extensive pursuit around London ...
Guardian 27 October 2009
Police in £9m scheme to log 'domestic extremists'
Police are gathering the personal details of thousands of activists who attend political meetings and protests, and storing their data on a network of nationwide intelligence databases.
The hidden apparatus has been constructed to monitor "domestic extremists", the Guardian can reveal in the first of a three-day series into the policing of protests. Detailed information about the political activities of campaigners is being stored on a number of overlapping IT systems, even if they have not committed a crime ...
Three national police units responsible for combating domestic extremism are run by the "terrorism and allied matters" committee of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo). In total, it receives £9m in public funding, from police forces and the Home Office, and employs a staff of 100 ...
Guardian 25 October 2009FITwatch exposes extent of police protester database
Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) have been a familiar sight at demonstrations for years, and many activists have had first hand experience of their particular brand of harassment and intimidation.
But although it is well known that they keep data on ‘known’ activists, including photos for their ‘spotter cards’, the full details of how extensive their database is, and how that data is used is only just beginning to surface.
FITwatch obtained evidence last December that the Metropolitan police places the personal data of political protesters onto their criminal intelligence database (Crimint), through the production of 'intelligence reports' by Forward Intelligence Teams In a subsequent Guardian investigation senior Met officers admitted the database included the names of regular attendees at political protest, regardless of whether or not they had done anything unlawful ...
FIT WatchPolice forces challenged over files held on law-abiding protesters
Met hired lawyers to contest the findings of G20 protest inquiry
How police rebranded lawful protest as 'domestic extremism'
Terrorist injunction over blacklist fight
Blacklist campaigners staged a protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning where a construction worker is facing an injunction under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in a bid to stop him picketing a power station.
Scottish & Southern Energy is applying for an injunction against Steve Acheson of Denton, Manchester.
The injunction is being sought to prevent Acheson from protesting at Fiddlers Ferry power station where he claims he was denied work on the scheme because of information held about him on the construction industry blacklist.
The injunction is under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and seeks to show that Acheson, by constant picketing of the site, represents a threat to the energy supplies of this country.
The basis of the application is that by picketing the site he is committing a trespass on the firm's property; that having issued leaflets to workers on the site calling for 'direct action' he is 'inciting' the workforce to commit acts contrary to the national interest which may impact on energy supplies and that he has, at times, acted in a way that might have intimidated the workforce.
One campaigner said: "Steve is a trade unionist not a terrorist."
ContractJournal.com 21 October 2009Blacklisted electrician hounded by company
Protester injunction bid rejected
Secret files reveal covert network run by nuclear police
The nuclear industry funds the special armed police force which guards its installations across the UK, and secret documents, seen by the Guardian, show the 750-strong force is authorised to carry out covert intelligence operations against anti-nuclear protesters, one of its main targets.
The nuclear industry will pay £57m this year to finance the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) ...
Most of the nuclear force's officers are armed with high-powered guns and Tasers. The CNC has spent £1.4m on weapons and ammunition in the past three years.
They patrol outside nuclear plants, with their jurisdiction stretching to three miles beyond the perimeter of the installations. They have the same powers as any other British police officer and can, for instance, arrest and stop and search people.
The body that regulates the CNC is also funded by the nuclear industry. Four of the eight members of the Civil Nuclear Police Authority are nominated by the nuclear industry as its representatives. Those four are employed in the industry. The others – mainly former police officers – are deemed to be independent.
The force is expected to expand as the government presses ahead with plans for a new generation of nuclear plants, which are likely to attract protests.
Ben Ayliffe, head of Greenpeace's anti-nuclear campaign, said: "There are very obvious worries about an armed police force that is accountable to an industry desperate to build nuclear reactors in the UK. This industry will probably be very keen for their police force to use all the powers available to them to prevent peaceful protests against nuclear power." ...
GuardianNuclear Power
Government anti-terrorism strategy 'spies' on innocent
The government programme aimed at preventing Muslims from being lured into violent extremism is being used to gather intelligence about innocent people who are not suspected of involvement in terrorism, the Guardian has learned ...
Tonight Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, branded it the biggest spying programme in Britain in modern times and an affront to civil liberties.
The intelligence is being gathered as part of the strategy Preventing Violent Extremism – Prevent for short.
It was launched three years ago to stop people being lured to al-Qaida ideology and committing acts of terrorism.
The government and police have repeatedly denied that the £140m programme is a cover for spying on Muslims in Britain. But sources directly involved in running Prevent schemes say it involves gathering intelligence about the thoughts and beliefs of Muslims who are not involved in criminal activity.
Instances around the country include:
• In the Midlands, funding for a mental health project to help Muslims was linked to information about individuals being passed to the authorities.
• In a college in northern England, a student who attended a meeting about Gaza was reported by one lecturer as a potential extremist. He was found not to be.
• A nine-year-old schoolboy in east London, who was referred to the authorities after allegedly showing signs of extremism – the youngest case known in Britain. He was "deprogrammed" according to a source with knowledge of the case.
• Within the last month, one new youth project in London alleged it was being pressured by the Metropolitan police to provide names and details of Muslim youngsters, as a condition of funding. None of the young Muslims have any known terrorist history.
• In one London borough, those working with youngsters were told to add information to databases they hold to highlight which youths were Muslim. They were also asked to provide information, to be shared with the police, about which streets and areas Muslim youngsters could be found on.
• In Birmingham the programme manager for Prevent is in fact a senior counter- terrorism police officer. Paul Marriott has been seconded to work in the equalities division of Britain's biggest council.
• In Blackburn, at least 80 people were reported to the authorities for showing signs of extremism. They were referred to the Channel project, part of Prevent.
• A youth project manager alleges his refusal to provide intelligence led to the police spreading false rumours and trying to smear him and his organisation.
• One manager of a project in London said : "I think part of the point of the [Prevent] programme is to spy and intelligence gather. I won't do that." In another London borough wardens on council estates were told to inform on people not whom they suspected of crimes, but whom they suspected could be susceptible to radicalisation.
One source, who has been involved in Whitehall discussions on counter-terrorism, said: "There is no doubt Prevent is in part about gathering intelligence on people's thoughts and beliefs. No doubt." He added that the authorities feared "they'd be lynched" if they admitted Prevent included spying.
Prevent is run by the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism, part of the Home Office. It is widely regarded in Whitehall as being an intelligence agency.
The OSCT is headed up by Charles Farr, a former senior intelligence officer, with expertise in covert work. Also senior in the OSCT is another former senior intelligence officer. The Guardian has been asked not to name him for security reasons ...
Guardian 16 October 2009
Damian Green row: Cabinet Office shamed
The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that a top official from the Cabinet Office will be accused of misleading the police about the seriousness of the security implications resulting from the Westminster leaks that led to Mr Green’s arrest.
The disclosures will embarrass Labour — and be seized on by Opposition politicians — because the role of the Cabinet Office is to co-ordinate policy and strategy across government departments.
Scotland Yard will also be heavily criticised in the report by Ian Johnston, the chief constable of the British Transport Police, for its alleged heavy-handed and ill-timed arrest of Mr Green.
He will suggest that the nature of the raids late last year were disproportionate to the allegations of Westminster leaks ...
Sir David Normington, the Home Office Permanent Secretary who first raised concerns that leaks of sensitive material could damage national security, is believed to have asked for passages to be redacted ...
Telegraph 10 October 2009Senior officers 'scared' to abandon inquiry
Vetting database will cost NHS and public bodies £170m
The Government's controversial vetting database will cost the British public at least £170m, The Independent can disclose.
The Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS), which comes into force next month and is intended to prevent unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adults, has already cost the Government £84m to set up.
Now, public bodies such as the NHS and the Prison Service will be forced to spend millions of pounds registering their employees on the scheme, at a time when their budgets have already been squeezed. Anyone who wants to work with children or vulnerable adults must pay a mandatory, one-off registration fee of £64. Almost all of the NHS's 1.3 million employees will have to join, leaving the organisation facing a total bill of about £83m.
Although each NHS trust can instruct its employees to pay their own fees, The Independent understands that almost all intend to foot the bill themselves, in much the same way as they have covered existing Criminal Records Bureau checks.
Prisoners are also classed as vulnerable adults, so the country's 40,000 registered prison officers will also need to register. The Prison Service has agreed to meet their registration costs, which amount to more than £2.5m.
Each individual must be cleared by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), which will employ 200 case workers to sift through information passed to them by the police, professional bodies and employers before making a judgement ...
Within five years, the Government estimates that the details of 11.3 million people will be stored on the database, making it the largest of its kind in the world ...
Independent 11 September 2009Child protection as political football
By and large, people will probably accept the new scheme, because of the unique significance society gives to child protection, and will soon take it for granted, as they do other bureaucratic intrusions.
But it will inhibit the kind of modest participation in the life of the community on which those committed enough to organise clubs and activities for young people depend for support.
It will dampen down the kind of spontaneous arrangements between people that give a community life, and will encroach further into an area where people have hitherto been free to make their own judgments and arrangements.
Even if it will not suggest that anybody who wants to work with children or around them is suspect, it will insist, more firmly than before, that they cannot be trusted.
Guardian 11 September 2009Vetting must be combined with common sense
Independent Safeguarding Authority could bar 'lonely' people from working with children
Josie Appleton, the convenor of the Manifesto Club, a civil liberties group that is leading opposition to the vetting scheme, said:
“It is clear that these procedures will further erode people’s privacy and civil liberties – and increase the likelihood of innocent people losing their job because ‘on the face of it’ somebody thought they did something.” ...
Concerns are growing about the scope of the scheme, its potential effect on volunteer numbers and the relationship between adults and children ...
It had been widely assumed that the ISA’s 200 case workers would make their decisions based solely on objective criteria such as whether applicants had relevant criminal convictions or professional misconduct findings against their names.
But official guidance discloses that subjective opinions about an individual’s beliefs or personal life could also be used to end their careers in education, health care or sport, if there are concerns about their conduct ...
Telegraph 08 September 2009Anger grows over 'paedophile checks'
Matthew Parris
Child protection scheme 'draconian'
New checks unveiled for children's club drivers
DCSF
More plane terror plots 'likely'
Whip up a climate of fear and it's easier to further degrade the Rule of Law
Al-Qaeda is likely to try again to use aircraft to attack the West, Whitehall officials have told the BBC.
Security correspondent Frank Gardner said they believed the airline bomb plot was part of al-Qaeda's "obsession" with using commercial airliners.
The warning comes after three British men were convicted of plotting to blow up flights from London to North America using bombs disguised as soft drinks.
Defence expert Michael Clarke agreed that al-Qaeda was "still plotting".
On Monday, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, were found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court after the UK's largest ever counter-terrorism operation
Their arrests in 2006 changed the face of air travel, prompting the introduction of restrictions on the carriage of liquids.
UK intelligence officers believe the plot was directed by al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan, including a British man - Rashid Rauf - from Birmingham, now thought to be dead ...
The case has reinforced calls for the use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails as evidence in court.
The prosecution case included a series e-mails linking Ali and Sarwar with jihadist figures in Pakistan.
These were not intercepted - they came from the Yahoo server in the US - but the BBC's home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said they had given ammunition to those calling for intercept evidence to be used in British courts.
At present, phone tap and intercepted email evidence is not admissible, but Sir Ken Macdonald, who was head of the Crown Prosecution Service when the airline plot was uncovered, says the case is proof that a change in the law is needed.
"This is the best evidence you can have - people convicting themselves out of their own mouths," Sir Ken told the BBC ...
BBC NEWS 08 September 2009
Innocent trainspotter suspected of being a terrorist by police after taking photos of trains
When trainspotter Stephen White noticed some interesting engines, he wasted no time in taking pictures of them for his collection.
It was the start of a bizarre sequence of events involving midnight phone calls, police raids and even, it is claimed, suspected terrorism ...
Daily Mail 25 August 2009
CCTV cameras: If they do not stop crime or catch criminals, what are they for?
Britain has far and away the largest number of surveillance cameras in the world. It is not known for certain how many there are, although one estimate puts the total at 4.2 million, or one for every 14 people, with one million in the capital alone.
Nobody can deny that this involves snooping on people in a way that would once have been unacceptable — and which would still be intolerable in countries with recent memories of totalitarian regimes. But it is justified by its advocates on crime-fighting grounds, and most people instinctively feel more secure if their neighbourhood is watched over by CCTV.
Yet there is plenty of evidence that people are not safer because of the presence of CCTV: studies have argued convincingly that money is better invested in improved street lighting and more uniformed police patrols.
If the efficacy of cameras as a crime prevention tool is at least questionable, they must, surely, be useful in helping to apprehend crooks? It turns out that they do not fulfil even that basic function. Det Chief Inspector Mike Neville of Scotland Yard says that in London just one crime is solved a year by every 1,000 CCTV cameras.
CCTV played a role in capturing just eight out of 269 suspected robbers across London in one month, many of whom might have thought twice about committing a crime had there been a policeman about. In recent years, the Government has spent £500 million on surveillance cameras. If they do not stop crime or catch criminals, what are they for? ...
Telegraph 24 August 2009
Lib Dems demand curbs on 'spying'
The Lib Dems want tighter controls on surveillance powers for authorities including councils and the police.
More than 500,000 requests to access phone and e-mail records were made in 2008, a report by the Interception of Communications Commissioner showed.
The Lib Dems say only a magistrate should be able to approve a request for surveillance, under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) ...
An average of about 1,500 surveillance requests were made every day in Britain last year, according to figures which have emerged from an annual report by commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy.
That is the annual equivalent to one in every 78 adults being targeted.
Although slightly down on 2007, the total number of requests last year was up by more than 40% on 2006.
It included 1,500 approved applications from local councils ...
BBC NEWS 10 August 2009A request to snoop on public every 60 secs
Police told to ignore human rights ruling over DNA database
Chief constables across England and Wales have been told to ignore a landmark ruling by the European court of human rights and carry on adding the DNA profiles of tens of thousands of innocent people to a national DNA database.
Senior police officers have also been "strongly advised" that it is "vitally important" that they resist individual requests based on the Strasbourg ruling to remove DNA profiles from the national database in cases such as wrongful arrest, mistaken identity, or where no crime has been committed.
European human rights judges ruled last December in the S and Marper case that the blanket and indiscriminate retention of the DNA profiles and fingerprints of 850,000 people arrested but never convicted of any offence amounts to an unlawful breach of their rights.
Britain already has the largest police national DNA database in the world, with 5.8m profiles, including one in three of all young black males. Thousands more are being added each week.
So far the Home Office has responded to the judgment by proposing a controversial package to keep DNA profiles of the innocent for six to 12 years, depending on the seriousness of the offence. The official consultation period ended today.
The advice to senior officers comes in a letter from the Association of Chief Police Officers criminal records office. The letter, seen by the Guardian, tells chief constables that new Home Office guidelines following the ruling in the case of S and Marper are not expected to take effect until 2010.
"Until that time, the current retention policy on fingerprints and DNA remains unchanged," it says. "Individuals who consider they fall within the ruling in the S and Marper case should await the full response to the ruling by the government prior to seeking advice and/or action from the police service in order to address their personal issue on the matter.
"Acpo strongly advise that decisions to remove records should not be based on [the government's] proposed changes. It is therefore vitally important that any applications for removals of records should be considered against current legislation." ...
Guardian 07 August 2009
High Court revokes control order
The government's anti-terror strategy has suffered a blow after the High Court revoked the control order of a suspect accused of links to al-Qaeda.
The ruling comes after the Law Lords said terror suspects held on house arrest-style conditions must be allowed a better idea of the case against them.
Mr Justice Mitting revoked the order against a British man, known as AN.
It comes after Home Secretary Alan Johnson chose to drop part of the case against AN rather than reveal it ...
The High Court heard that Mr Johnson was already taking steps to make a new order - which AN will not be able to challenge before the autumn ...Dominic Casciani, BBC home affairs correspondent
On the face of it, this judgement at the High Court looks like it's good news for the terror suspect, known only as AN, and bad news for the home secretary.
But the government has in fact succeeded in defending control orders despite predictions they were doomed.
The Law Lords, driven by the European Court, say more secret evidence must be revealed in cases like this terror suspect.
But the Home Office has swerved around the controversy of closed material by withdrawing its old case - and seeking a new order on different terms. So despite winning, the suspect is in the same place as before.
This man will challenge the new order - and the High Court will, in essence, hear all the same arguments again. The Lords' judgement shifted the balance towards suspects' rights - but we're a long way from the tipping point.
BBC NEWS 31 July 2009High court revokes control order
Woman 'detained' for filming police search launches high court challenge
A woman is to challenge the Metropolitan police in the high court, claiming she was handcuffed, detained and threatened with arrest for filming officers on her mobile phone.
Lawyers for Gemma Atkinson, a 27-year-old who was detained after filming police officers conduct a routine stop and search on her boyfriend, believe her case is the latest example of how police are misusing counterterrorism powers to restrict photography.
Atkinson's mobile phone recorded part of the incident at Aldgate East underground station on 25 March, one month after Section 58(a) – a controversial amendment to the Terrorism Act – came into force, making it illegal to photograph a police officer if the images are considered "likely to be useful" to a terrorist ...
Guardian 21 July 2009Standing up for our rights
Police want water cannons to beat back city rioters
Police 'Failing to prevent violence' - you could not make it up!
British mainland police want water cannons to use against demonstrators in the face of criticism that conventional crowd-control tactics, such as those used during the G20 demonstrations, are failing to prevent violence.
The Metropolitan and Greater Manchester forces are set to request permission to use cannons, according to internal documents seen by The Independent on Sunday.
MPs on the Home Affairs Committee last week condemned the Metropolitan Police's handling of the G20 protests in London in April, particularly the behaviour of untrained officers when confronted with large crowds and the controversial technique of "kettling" – the compulsory containment of demonstrators.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, admitted Scotland Yard was looking at more robust tactics – including water cannons – in the wake of the G20 disturbances.
But the IoS has learnt that Scotland Yard first began training officers to use the weapons in May 2008, a year before G20. The same month senior Met officers considered a plan to buy six water cannons for "quelling or moderating violent disorder" at a cost of £5m. They are seeking financial help from the Home Office.
The Independent 05 July 2009
Court law 'hinders terror police'
Translated: "Make it easier for us to bang people up"
The government should review the Contempt of Court Act, the UK's former top anti-terror police officer says.
Peter Clarke said the law, designed to ensure fair trials by limiting reporting of cases, made it harder for anti-terrorism police to do their jobs.
He said if they could not fully explain their actions, it made it difficult for communities to have confidence in them.
The Criminal Bar Association disagreed with Mr Clarke, saying the law "should not constitute a problem" for police.
The Contempt of Court Act became law in 1981.
It says once someone has been arrested, any kind of publication that creates "a substantial risk that the course of justice... will be seriously impeded or prejudiced" is a criminal offence, regardless of intent ...
Abdurahman Jafar, from the Muslim Safety Forum, which liaises with the police and British Muslims, said Mr Clarke was wrong.
He told the BBC that more information would only fuel the "media feeding frenzy" around these cases and lead to "an increase in isolation and criminalisation" within the Muslim community.
"What we've seen is huge amounts of publicity when people are arrested… but when the individuals were either acquitted or the charges dropped there is absolutely no publicity whatsoever," he said.
"The result of that is that the wider public feel as though Muslims per se are a community of terrorists." ...
BBC NEWS 05 July 2009
Identity card trial for air industry staff dropped
A compulsory identity card trial for pilots and 30,000 other airport workers due to start in September has been abandoned by the new home secretary, Alan Johnson. But he intends to accelerate other elements of the scheme, including plans to issue £30 voluntary ID cards to young adults across north-west England. Johnson is also looking at making ID cards free for over-75s.
Longer-term plans to make ID cards compulsory for critical workers at railway stations have also been dropped.
British citizens would not be forced to carry ID cards, the home secretary insisted. Johnson said: "Holding an identity card should be a personal choice for British citizens – just as it is now to obtain a passport.
"Accordingly, I want the introduction of identity cards for all British citizens to be voluntary and I have therefore decided that identity cards issued to airside workers, planned initially at Manchester and London City airports later this year, should also be voluntary." Asked if the cards would ever be made compulsory he said "No", adding: "If a future government wanted to make them compulsory it would require primary legislation."
Guardian 30 June 2009'If you apply for a passport you automatically go on the ID database'
Johnson has his card marked by Brown
Passport details to be kept on ID register despite card U-turn
Explainer: Identity cards