One of the PCSOs finishes writing up the stop and search ticket
PhotoLegal presenters Darren Hector and Phill Price today witnessed what they believed to be an unlawful stop and search in Trafalgar Square by two Police Community Support Officers.
They were photowalking in the centre of London and happened upon the scene which was taking place underneath the fourth plinth that is being used for Anthony Gormley’s ‘One and Other’ project.
Phill said “Two young white males wearing baseball caps and riding pedal-bicycles were in the process of being stopped and searched by two Police Community Support Officers.
“We believed that PCSOs are only able to execute a stop and search in the presence of a Police Constable, but Darren posted a message on twitter to check. One of the guys from the ‘I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist’ campaign group replied to confirm that our understanding was correct and supplied a link to the appropriate page of the Metropolitan Police website.”
Darren said “PCSOs and junior police officers are often involved in anecdotal evidence we hear of the regular stop and search of photographers in the centre of London. While community support officers were introduced to do just what the name implies, it would appear that they are now being routinely used for regular policing duties which they are not trained to do, and in some cases appear to be acting unlawfully.
“Of course, the reason for the stop and search of these guys may have been completely valid, but it is essential if confidence in our police forces is to return that policing is carried out by trained officers in a professional and lawful manner. Subjective decisions to confiscate cameras, restrict photography or prevent any other lawful activity by untrained PCSOs must come to an end.”
In separate news, Amateur Photographer’s news editor, Chris Cheesman also witnessed a stop and search of a tourist by armed officers yesterday evening.
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A far more likely answer is that they don’t know what their powers are. Police, and triply so PCSOs, get limited training (whatever police propoganda says) and rarely understand what they can and can’t do. The result is they half recall something they heard they could do and ‘make it up as they go along’.
It would have been better to call them out on it.
Thanks David – I think you’ve captured our point exactly. Many incidents of this type appear to be the result of poor training and a lack of understanding of the law.
We were bystanders and came into this just as the stop and search was being concluded. Had it been one of us that was being stopped and searched, I’m sure we would have asserted that it was unlawful and invited the PCSOs to call a Constable to attend.
I have to agree with David Harris on this one.
I previously worked for a law enforcement group in another country. The legislation relating to our operational duties was comparatively simple (it was contained in only 3-4 separate Acts/Regulations which were normally quite clearly written). After coming to the UK and reading some of your legislation (professional interest) I find it is often spread across multiple separate documents and so far I have found very little modern (funnily enough the older stuff is normally much easier to understand) legislation that is actually reasonably understandable by the layperson (I know that Law must cover a lot of bases but it can still be made understandable).
My experience with UK laws (and I don’t even consider what each Constabulary has in terms of internal guidance and operational procedures) leaves me no doubt that the Police here have little chance of being able to fully understand their role… This means a PCSO is even less likely to know. I consider this issue as much to blame as the actual content of the legislation for many of the problems photographers are now facing.