NEW POLICE POWERS FOR FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM
The British Government has rushed through new legislation on the fight against terrorism. The "Prevention of Terrorism (Additional Powers) Act" gives the police five substantial and unprecedented new powers.
The Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) was introduced in 1974 as a temporary measure against IRA terrorism, but has been renewed each year, ever since.
The new police powers
Based on intelligence information indicating that terrorist activities must be expected in a particular area, police may cordon off an area for 28 days and declare it a "special zone". Within this zone, police are authorized to stop and body-search any passer-by, even in the absence of any suspicion of terrorism. Anybody refusing such an examination can be sentenced to 6 months imprisonment or a £5,000 fine. The police are authorized to decide alone the extent of the zone and the duration of the measure, but must report to the Home Affairs Department (Interior Ministry) within 48 hours.
The police are granted further far-reaching powers to search freight in ports and airports, as well as, for example, entire office buildings, to seal off quarters at risk and remove vehicles parked in front of sensitive premises.
The new legislation actually puts on a par Britain with Northern Ireland, where the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC: Ulster police force) was been granted these powers long ago.
The new law was not opposed by the opposition Labour Party and was rushed through in fast-track proceedings just before the Parliament's Easter recess without any informed debate.
The British magazine Statewatch writes that the new legislation is likely to further erode the civil liberties of the Irish community in Britain, that it further blurs the distinction between the ordinary criminal law powers and extraordinary powers for fighting terrorism, and - through the concept of "special zones" - shifts the focus of policing away from an individual to an area. Finally, Statewatch argues that the new powers are "a clear reflection of the failure of the existing legislation", since the PTA has not prevented terrorism. "Yet the police requested even more powers . . . and they have been granted with even less restrictions. Gone is the need for reasonable suspicion and gone too is the need for some independent check . . . "
"If a `police state' is one in which the police define and implement the law without any checks and balances in the use of the law, then this legislation takes Britain closer to one", Statewatch concludes.
Sources: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 3.4.96; Statewatch vol 6 no 2, March-April 96.