Is the UK a police state?

Britain is not a police state but a nation with police state tendencies. In any democracy the dictates of freedom wrestle with those of security. Britons are a liberal people who want to be safe. Do they also want to live in a condition of perpetual paranoia? Simon Jenkins

People insist that we are not living in a police state but perhaps that is rather a 20th-century notion. What we are pioneering in Britain is a 21st-century version of the police state - the controlled state. Henry Porter

If the Police pick someone up it's because they probably have something to go on. It won't happen to you. You're innocent, so don't worry.

It would be absolutely ridiculous to even consider the UK could be called a Police state, wouldn't it? The UK has had a long history of tolerance and very civil policing. Its professional police force was created in 1820 and has since been copied by cities around the world. When thinking about the police we still come up with images of friendly bobbies.

Things have changed:

• The Police stop and search people without the need to show that they have reasonable suspicion an offence is being committed (under the power of the infamous Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000). stop_search
• The Police search the home of arrested (not charged) people without the need for a warrant (Section 18 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984). search_home
• The Police collect fingerprints, palm prints and DNA samples of innocents, i.e. even when the person is not charged with any offence or has been acquitted of an alleged offence. DNA profiles are kept in the National DNA Database (NDNAD) and DNA samples are stored by the laboratories which analyse them - forever. UK leads the world in the collection of individual DNA records having collected the DNA profiles of more than 4.1 million people, over the past 11 years (1995/96 to 2006/07). By early 2007, the profiles of 108 children under 10, along with 883,888 people aged between 10 and 17, and 46 people more than 90 years old were on the NDNAD. This includes the DNA of more than 1,139,445 persons never found guilty of any crime (July 2006). There are at least 105,000 innocent 10-17 year-olds on the database and of one seven-month-old baby girl.
  In 2006/07, 667,737 profiles were added on the National DNA Database (NDNAD), including that of about 160,000 young people aged 10-17; only 115 removed. By July 2006, 3,457,000 individuals were on the NDNAD. By December 2005, 3,130,429 people had had their DNA taken from them. By March 2004, it was 2,527,728 people or 5.24% of the UK population; this compared to 0.98% in Austria, 0.83% in Switzerland, 0.50% in the USA and 0.41% in Germany.
  ...and fingerprints are required to hire a car at Stanstead Airport. dna
• The Police keep records in the Police National Computer of arrests details of innocents, including mentions of 'non-conviction' until the subject reaches 100 years old. non_conviction
• The Police have powers of arrest without warrant, which make all offences, no matter how trivial, into arrestable offences (Section 110 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, came into force on 2006-01-01), and allow the Police to take DNA, fingerprints and palm prints of all those arrested. s110
• The Police have a ‘shoot to kill’ policy in cases they consider terrorism. They shot dead one person – Jean Charles de Menezes – who was not a terrorist on 2005-07-22. On 2005-10-24, this strategy had apparently been widened to include other offences such as kidnapping, stalking and domestic violence. On 2005-12-11, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said on the use of lethal force: ‘We are doing everything we can... but the probability is that there may be mistakes’. On 2006-06-02, another innocent Londoner – Mohammed Abdul Kahar – is shot in the chest by the Police in a anti-terror raid at his home at 4am (released without charge seven days later). On 2007-02-19, Cressida Dick, who was in charge of the operation that led to de Menezes being shot seven times in the head after he was mistaken for a suspected suicide bomber, is promoted to the rank of Deputy Assistant Commissioner. shoot_to_kill
• The Police Federation, according to Bob Elder, the chairman of the constables' central committee, is apparently considering shooting the public without even pretending that they may be terrorists. Asked if, in the event of a dirty bomb, he could foresee officers firing on civilians, he said: ‘It's an option the government is going to have to consider. We haven't got enough cops trained to deal with full-scale containment and it's putting everyone at risk.’ firing_on_civilians
• Officers shooting people appear to do so with impunity. Since 1993, there has been 30 fatal shootings by the Police. No police officer has been successfully prosecuted for any of these fatalities caused by police marksmen. The officer in charge of the operation that led to the shooting of de Menezes is even selected for promotion. shootings
• Innocents (not even charged) can be disappeared for 14 28 days. They are usually held in stations such as Paddington Green in such poor conditions, that after a 14-day interview period even their lawyers are often ill. Will it be extended soon to 28 days?Will it be extended soon to 42 days (see below)? Section 23 of the Terrorism Act 2006 became law on 2006-03-30. Apparently, this is the longest allowed in any western European country. It also introduces new very broad offences: Encouragement of terrorism and Preparation of terrorist acts. pre-charge_detention
• The Government is seeking to deport foreign suspects to countries where it is likely the deportees will be tortured or killed. deportation
• Section 132 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA) outlaws protests without prior police authorisation within a designated area of 1 km straight line from the central part of Parliament Square. Several individuals involved in peaceful protests have been arrested; see a diary of events related to SOCPA since it came into force on 2005-08-01. (You may want to join in a mass lone demonstration.)
  Part 2 of the Serious Crime Act 2007 (SCA) makes it an offence to encourage or assist in the taking part in or organising of a demonstration not authorised under SOCPA (modified by the SCA) possibly further criminalising peaceful opposition to the government. s132
• Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBO) affect people that are different including children, protesters and the mentally ill. in 1998, the then Home Secretary Jack Straw said there was a target for ‘5,000 [ASBOs to be issued] annually’ after their introduction on 1999-04-01. A total of 9,853 have been issued between 1999-04-01 and 2005-12-31. In Part 1 of the Serious Crime Act 2007, the Home Office introduced 'serious crime prevention orders' (SCPO) targeted at those whom police believe are likely to commit violence, i.e. including those who have not yet have committed an offence - and may never commit any. With the Mental Health Bill, ministers are also attempting to allow enforced detention of people who are mentally ill, even if they have not committed any crime. asbo
• Control orders and even more restrictive special bail surety conditions force persons to live in what amounts to being under quarantine. The Home Office sentences acquitted persons with control orders. control_orders
• Omnipresent surveillance. Britain reportedly has 4.2 million public cameras, 20% of the world's CCTV, or one camera for every 14 people – according to a director of photography, these are very good cameras, high colour with good focus. DCI Mick Neville, head of the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido) at New Scotland Yard commented, ‘Billions of pounds has been spent on kit, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court. It's been an utter fiasco: only 3% of crimes were solved by CCTV.’ Cameras trained on cars are equipped with automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and the MPS's Counter Terrorism command are given real-time access to this data (and MI5 and MI6 to London's Oyster cards transactions). (What else? Secretly planting RFID tags in garbage wheelie bins!) cctv
• Phone companies have to retain traffic data for all phone services including voice, voicemail and conference and data calls, call forwarding and call transfer, SMS, EMS and MMS for one year (Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2007). This includes the telephone number from which the call was made and the dialled phone number, and the name and address of the subscriber and registered user of those telephone numbers; and the date and time of the start and end of the calls. For mobile calls this includes the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) of the phones; the cell ID at the start of the communication; and for pre-paid anonymous services, the date and time of the initial activation of the service and the cell ID from which the service was activated. The Government plans to extend the rules to cover internet use (websites visited, emails and VoIP calls) in 2009. data_retention
• Refusing to disclose, on request, the secret cryptographic decryption key(s) - that you may have forgotten - or to provide plaintext decrypted versions of protected data you may have on your computer is punishable by up to five years in jail. There's a provision for a "tipping off" offence if you mention the initial request to anyone. (Part III of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 commenced on 2007-10-01 after seven years lain dormant. ripa
• Taking pictures, filming or even just drawing sketches of buildings is now often considered ‘hostile reconnaissance’ and risks you being stopped and searched, or even arrested. (Many persons who were intimidated in such circumstances by the Police emailed me, including one person who was arrested for ‘sketching pictures of the Southbank’ and another for taking a picture that includes a petrol station and in 2006-08 an Iraqi was charged for filming Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye, eventually found not guilty, to be put under a control order. On 2007-05-14, two students are arrested after taking snapshots of Tower Bridge. Even my innocent doodles were construed by the Police as being a tube station plan.)
  Filming or taking photographs of London tube stations without obtaining a permit in advance is illegal since July 2005. Ironically we are being told: ‘Detectives have issued an urgent appeal for any photographs, video footage or mobile phone images’. hostile_recon
• Saying or wearing the wrong words may get you arrested. The Encouragement of Terrorism section of the Terrorism Act 2006 is so broad that it is likely to be an incursion on free speech. encouragement
• National identity register and identity cards. The law has passed, implementation in progress. nir
• Under the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2006 the Treasury can freeze the assets of whoever they designate. They do not have to give any hard evidence. They can do so in secrecy. And they are above the law ('An action done under this Schedule is not to be treated as a breach of any restriction imposed by statute or otherwise.') asset_freeze
• The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 that let ministers alter the law - to some extent. Used to attempt to restrict what we can obtain under the Freedom of Information Act. larr
• There have been 60 Home Office bills in 10 years resulting in over 3,000 new offences. The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 - this Bill was ‘the 52nd Home Office Bill since the Government came to power in 1997’. (From 1997 to 2006, each year has seen an average of 2,685 new laws – a 22% increase from the average over the previous 10 years.) act_offences
• The UK is ranked the 23rd most democratic country, 25th least surveilled one (worst ranking EU country) and 11th lowest perceived level of corruption. ranking
• The Home Office, the Metropolitan Police and the Department of Health secretly established in October 2006, the London based Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC) staffed by police and psychiatrists; they have the power to detain suspects indefinitely using mental health laws. ftac
• The Palace of Westminster and Portcullis House Site are added to the sites designated under Section 128 (offence of trespassing on designated site) of the SOCPA. From 2007-06-01, attending an event in a Committee Room or meeting your MP in Portcullis House can land in you in jail for up to 51 weeks. s128

More is planned:

• On 2007-05-24, the Secretary of State for the Home Department states that he is considering derogating from article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which requires declaring a state of emergency. emergency
• On 2007-05-27, the Home Office reveals it is examining a proposal to give powers to the police to stop and question people. People refusing to give their names or explain what they were doing could be charged with obstructing the police and fined up to £5,000. stop_question
• On 2007-07-25, Gordon Brown stated he is considering extending the current limit of 28 days pre-charge detention period even further. pre_charge_extension
• With the Counter Terrorism Bill 2008, the Home Office intends to extends the pre-charge detention period for ‘terror suspects’ to 42 days, to allow post-charge questioning of ‘terror suspects’ (possibly right up to the trial date, presuming that the “suspects” are guilty), to create a new criminal offence of seeking ‘information which could be useful for terrorism’, to impose travel restrictions for ‘suspects’, punish families of convicted terrorists by confiscating their property (bank accounts, vehicles, computers, homes, etc.), to hold inquests in secrecy, and other proposals which undermine the rights of ‘suspects’ to due legal process, impose ever greater punishment without trial and further create a climate of fear. counter_terrorism

One must realise that all Police powers that apply before someone is convicted, apply in the exact same way to innocents wrongfully arrested and to criminals before they are charged and convicted. In a democratic country, Police powers need to be balanced and checked so they are not abused against innocents, especially not for political reasons. without_protection

Without protection for the individuals who make up society, society itself founders. Nor is there a balance to be struck between the rights of individuals and national security: national security depends upon every individual in this country having inalienable rights. Gareth Peirce

Make up your own mind. If you find the situation has gone too far, here are a few suggestions as to what you can do to help reverse it.

Other interesting lists and references: links

• Get the UK legislation (Bills and Acts of Parliament) from the UK Statute Law database, the Office of Public Sector Information and the Parliament, or via Statewatch and via Spy Blog. For British, Irish and European Union case law go to BAILII.
• Follow or search the House of Commons and House of Lords debates and written answers at TheyWorkForYou, The Public Whip or the Hansard.

• The Juggernaut of Subjection - Summary of the principal legislative sources of the erosion of rights and freedoms in Britain published by Areopagitica.
• Prime recent and proposed attacks on civil rights in the UK published by MagnaCartaPlus.
• United Kingdom – Human rights: a broken promise published by Amnesty International.
• Far along a destructive path by Gareth Peirce.
• The 2007 annual Charles Douglas-Home Memorial Trust Award winning essay by Philip Johnson.
• Blair laid bare: the article that may get you arrested, The limits of liberty: We're all suspects now, The way the police treat us verges on the criminal and other commentaries by Henry Porter.
• In defence of human rights published on UK Indymedia.
• Top ten laws we don't need, a LibDems campaign.

(Most sources for this list can be found in my recent experience or on del.icio.us.)

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