UK Stop and Search by Police, Snoops, Teachers and Children in Your Pubs, Schools, Streets, Homes and Virtual Reality

[TriWooOx]

Quote:Government plans allowing police to stop people on the grounds of skin colour are discriminatory and amount to racial profiling, the official equalities body has warned ministers.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission wants the plans dropped and has warned there is a high risk that British and European laws will be broken, in a letter seen by the Guardian.

Serving officers represented by the Black Police Association have also damned the plans as a "concession to racism" as opposition to the measures intensifies.

The issue threatens to test the credibility of Conservative claims to be an inclusive party and drag the government into a dispute over race.

The Home Office says it intends to press ahead and introduce the guidance allowing race to be taken into account when a police officer stops someone if it is judged to be relevant. It says race cannot be the sole reason for deciding to conduct a search, and the government insists the new measures will "protect civil liberties".

The issue of the police stop-and-search powers is particularly controversial because officers are more likely to target a minority ethnic person than someone who is white. African-Caribbean people are already at least six times more likely to be stopped than white people under powers where an officer has reasonable suspicion to carry out a search.

The Home Office proposals cover stops where officers do not require reasonable suspicion, a power they have under section 60 of the Public Order Act, meaning police have maximum discretion. For these stops black people are 26 times more likely than white people to be targeted. Critics say this is blatant discrimination.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The proposed new guidelines make clear that ethnicity may not be used as the sole basis for stopping and searching anyone under section 60." But in its letter to the government, the commission said: "We consider there is a significant risk that this provision will result in race discrimination."

It adds there is a "high risk" it may lead to "a degree of racial profiling".

The commission says provisions on freedom from state intrusion and discrimination are likely to be broken unless the government backs down: "There is a high risk these powers would breach article 8, and or 14 of the European convention on human rights, and section 29 of the Equality Act 2010."

The Home Office plans to allow police to search people where there is no eyewitness description are also causing alarm. The measure will allow descriptions taken from CCTV images to be used, which is uncontroversial. But the commission and some police officers say the Home Office proposal is too widely drawn and may allow stops on the basis of "outright racial prejudice or hatred".

Opposition also comes in a letter from the Black Police Association, and signed by Doreen Lawrence, whose son Stephen was killed by racists. The case of Stephen Lawrence led to measures aimed to tackle alleged police discrimination, some of which the government will abolish.

This includes the recording of stops and searches by officers, which allows for the gathering of data on the over-targeting of minority ethnic people by police.

In the letter, the black police officers, Lawrence and a coalition of minority ethnic groups say: "The new proposal to widen to widen this area opens the door to racial targeting that could be based on gossip, malice and outright racial prejudice.

"This particular change along with the abolishment of stop and account could vastly increase the stopping of young black men which is already wholly disproportionate, and would worsen police and community relations. By changing the guidance to allow a citizen's ethnicity to provide reasonable cause for the use of this intrusive power will result in the large-scale legitimisation of racism in policing.

"We believe that such a move will be seen as deeply provocative and a dangerous concession to racism."

The Home Office guidance reads: "There may be circumstances, however, where it is appropriate for officers to take account of an individual's ethnic origin in selecting persons and vehicles to be stopped in response to a specific threat or incident, but this must not be the sole reason for the stop. For example, when the authorising officer reasonably believes those likely to be responsible are associated with particular ethnic identities and passes that information on to the officers exercising the powers."

The Guardian has also learned that a national community panel set up to reduce the over-targeting of minority ethnic people was abolished in summer. It had been under the wing of the home office, but the last government transferred it to the National Policing Improvement Agency. Local panels were intended to replace it but they are not yet functioning.

Stops carried out under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 have already been dropped after the European court of human rights struck them down. Last year over 100,000 stops were carried out under section 44, without police making a single arrest for terrorism.

The American civil rights leader Rev Jesse Jackson has said Britain's moral authority is being damaged by the government's failure to stop the police discriminating against ethnic minorities

Isabella Sankey, policy director for Liberty, said: "It makes no sense to tighten up section 44 stop and search while making section 60 more discriminatory. A young, black man is already 26 times more likely to be stopped and searched under section 60 than his white counterparts – we urge ministers to think again."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/15...commission

[FastTadpole]

Quote:Last year over 100,000 stops were carried out under section 44, without police making a single arrest for terrorism.

Terrorism Act: No terror arrests made after 100,000 stop-and-searches
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=35397

That's the real issue - but the media is trying to fire up the racism meme once again. This kind of serving and protecting don't work worth jack squat and it is just plain wrong to do this.

It's conditioning the herd.

CCTV Empire > 100K Stop and Searches > 8 Million GPS Pings* > Cameras in your Home** > ????

* One Year only the US and just Sprint
** It's to protect the children.

[TriWooOx]

Quote:Police are hoping to win government backing for a new counter-terrorism power to stop and search people without the suspicion of criminal activity.

Officers say the powers are needed to better protect the public from attacks against large groups of people.

Previously, section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowed counter-terrorism stops without suspicion, but this was scrapped by Home Secretary Theresa May after Strasbourg judges said it was illegal.

Fearing their counter-terrorism powers are now weak, police have asked for a law which would be restricted to a specific period of time and to a limited geographic area, place or event, The Guardian reported.

The new powers would need primary legislation to become law and could be introduced within months.

A source said: ‘The key thing is to get this power without its use being random.

'You can’t have a random power because of the judgement, but some new power is needed.

‘It could cover an event of high importance such as the Olympics.

'It would be for a limited time and in a limited geographical place, and at a time when the threat level is severe.’

Section 23 of the Terrorism Act currently allows searches, but officers must have reasonable suspicions for them to be lawful.

The issue of the police stop-and-search powers is particularly controversial because officers are more likely to target a minority ethnic person than someone who is white.

African-Caribbean people are 26 times more likely than white people to be targeted and critics say this is blatant discrimination.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...s-law.html

[TriWooOx]

Quote:The controversial measures under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 have not resulted in any prosecutions but have led to complaints from people across all sections of society who have been stopped in order to balance statistics.

The Government, which suspended use of section 44 in July, is likely to limit use of the powers to shorter time periods and geographical areas.

Allowing continued use will satisfy the concerns of senior police officers who believe they could be a vital tool around major events such as this year's Royal wedding or the London Olympics next year.

A review, expected later this week, is also likely to result in many of the powers involved in control orders being retained, but under a different name.

Graham Foulkes, whose son, David, was a victim of the July 7 attacks, called on the Deputy Prime Minister yesterday to retain the control orders, which limit the movement of terrorism suspects.

"The current system is not perfect," he said. "But throwing it out with no effective replacement process leaves us vulnerable.

"What is Nick Clegg planning to put in place? Or was his decision more motivated by playing politics?"

Critics of section 44 say the powers were used 101,248 times in 2009-10, but resulted in just 506 arrests and none of those was under terrorism laws.

However, City of London Police officers found what they believed was surveillance footage of the Tube taken around the third anniversary of the July 7 bombings after conducting raids based on one stop and search in 2008.

Assistant Commissioner John Yates, Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer, called for a more "common sense" use of the powers in an article in The Daily Telegraph last year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/t...eturn.html

[FastTadpole]

Merged ~20 threads, connecting the dots, showing the evolution of the UK Stop and Search Slice by Police, Computer Snoops, Teachers, Your Neighbours and Your Children in your Pubs, at your Schools, on the Street, in your Car, in Your Home and in Virtual Reality.

Stickied and thanks for all the updates on Great Britain's sophisticated spy, privacy busting, behaviour engineering, social experiment and behaviour monitoring network on it's own citizens on The Island everyone. Arguably the World's biggest "security" noose. China, Israel, Japan and the US deserving honourable mentions with Canada, The Koreas, and Australia quickly gaining momentum.

PM me to merge more if you come across them if you wish. There are rumblings we may be extending this forum to incorporate wiki type functionality. Which would be very useful IMO.

[FastTadpole]

Quote:Scotland Yard IS using facial recognition tech
Submitted by nonprofiteer on Thursday August 11, @05:40PM

Scotland Yard confirms that it's using facial recognition technology to identify rioters in London. "A law enforcement official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said that facial recognition is one of many tools police are using to hunt suspects still at large."

Meanwhile, the vigilante group trying an amateur stab applying facial recognition to the riot photos abandoned the project because the results sucked: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/...r-project/

This is the big test of the surveillance state that London has become. Are all those cameras effective, or just taking a toll on privacy without bringing added security? http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ar...et/243445/

Link to Original Source

http://slashdot.org/submission/1753776/S...ition-tech

This whole facial recognition technology. One day it will be the standard but now? To local forces? No doubt military / intelligence level FRT is evolved enough to see through balaclavas. Scotland Yard probably has it installed but doesn't want to show its hand as far as how advanced it is and/or to justify increased public funding for new spy gizmos.