The Guardian (print edition) reports that last year more than 1 million stop and searches under various legislation were performed by police in the UK. The number of s.44 stops under the Terrorism Act 2000 more than trebled, from 37,197 in 2006/7 to 117,278 in 2007/8. It is s.44 that is the basis for most stops and searches of photographers, enabling random search without reasonable suspicion of anyone within designated areas such as Greater London, where most of the increase arose.
Or not so random. "The number of black people stopped rose by 322% compared with an increase of 277% for Asian and 185% for white people" says the Guardian. The number of people stopped for taking photos or looking like they might is unreported, no doubt because the stops are supposed to be random and without cause. Nevertheless black and Asian photographers are likely suffering the brunt of this interference.
The Guardian quotes barrister Corrina Ferguson of Liberty "Only 6 in 10,000 people stopped were arrested for terrorism, let alone charged or convicted". She said the three-fold increase was a clear sign that the powers were being misused and had little to do with terrorism.
Guardian audio coverage is here.
For more information about the use of s.44 against photographers see our other articles. If you require advice about your rights and how to deal with being stopped and searched, or to file a monitoring report, go to Liberty.
It will be interesting to see whether the revised guidance on s.44 searches has any impact on figures for the current year. We suspect they will increase still further, especially where photographers are concerned. After a lot of complaints and MP Austin Mitchell's Early Day Motion signed by a third of MP's, back in October Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced revised advice would be given that would pay special attention to photographers rights.
The revised advice unfortunately made no concessions at all to distinctions between photographers and terrorists. It merely pointed out that photography was legal unless it wasn't and robustly instructed police to carry on regardless. Since then she has uttered more weasel words and now unleashed 60,000 Argusholes on us, in a bid to stamp out terrorism. Or photography, it's getting really hard to tell which.
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