Unit 17 Police Powers – Assignment 1 (P1, P2, P3, M1, D1) Billy Lindsay
When a subject is arrested, their freedom and some of their rights are taken away from them. A
person can be arrested for questioning about a charge, if they are disrupting peace in public, if the
police need DNA samples from them, if they need to be returned to prison, or to bring somebody to
appear in court.
Both police officers and UK citizens can make an arrest on someone without a warrant. Citizens have
a right to perform a citizen’s arrest under Section 24 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act of 1984.
However, there are certain rules that you must abide by when performing a citizen’s arrest. You
cannot arrest someone upon pure suspicion. If this is done, you could be prosecuted. A citizen can
only arrest another person if the subject is committing or has committed an indictable offence. An
indictable offence is a serious crime that has to be tried in a crown court (e.g. rape, murder).
Here are the differences between a citizen’s arrest and a police arrest:
Citizen’s arrest Police arrest
Cannot carry out an arrest on a subject if they Can arrest a subject if they suspect a crime is
suspect that a crime is about to take place or about to take place.
has taken place. They can only arrest if they
know that someone has committed or is
coming an indictable offence.
Can only carry out an arrest if there is no Can carry out arrests even if there is a risk of
chance of violence to break. danger and violence as they are trained on how
to minimise violence and defend themselves
whilst doing their job.
Can only arrest a subject for committing Can arrest a subject for any crime.
indictable offences.
Whenever a police officer searches and detains someone, they must also have reasonable suspicion,
otherwise they do not have the right to randomly stop anyone. However, there is controversy
surrounding what qualifies as reasonable suspicion. It is important to understand that Officers base a
lot of their work on judgement at the time of arrest. This judgement is different between police
officers as it is opinion and is therefore not a set standard.
Arrests without a warrant
Arrests without a warrant can happen when police must react quickly and arrest a criminal at the
scene of a crime, and they do not know who they will need to arrest. This means that the police can
respond quickly in any given situation. However, some people could argue that this gives too much
power to police judgement and each Officer will make a different judgement. General arrest
powers are stated by Section 24 of the PACE act, but these were updated by Section 110 of the
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act of 2005 which created Code G of PACE which outlines the
grounds on which an officer may make a necessary arrest, and extended powers of arrest. This
creates a structure for arrests which means that there is less chance of error in judgement. This
guidance gives an officer more rights to make the decision to arrest if they believe they need them
to deal with a situation. However, it also states that police officers should also utilise other options
like a fixed penalty, a report for summons, or an ASBO if the crime is minor and not worthy of a full
arrest.
Arrests with a warrant
, Unit 17 Police Powers – Assignment 1 (P1, P2, P3, M1, D1) Billy Lindsay
Police officers can make a request to a magistrate’s court for a warrant to arrest a suspected
criminal or to ensure that a witness attends court. Warrants are given under Section 1 of the
Magistrates’ Court Act of 1980. The warrant must identify the suspect and what crime has been
committed or what the arrest is for. The decision is in the hands of the magistrate whether to grant
officers a warrant or not. If the warrant is issued, officers can then make the arrest using reasonable
force and entering premises if necessary. Warrants are normally made for people who have violated
the conditions of their bail, failed to attend court or have not paid fines that they’ve been given. It
takes time to obtain a warrant and therefore can slow the police down in completing their job.
However, a warrant issue by the courts for the police to arrest a person, shares responsibility if a
mistake is made. Also, criminals are more likely to be prosecuted with a warrant as they are more
likely to be guilty. Therefore, this is a better use of taxpayer's money.
It is vital that only lawful arrests are made otherwise the person who is being arrested could be
injured or their human rights could be restricted, and this could lead to a compensation claim or a
prosecution against the police force. A lawful arrest balances the rights of the individual and police
powers, which is beneficial to all. It ensures that any evidence used towards the case has been
collected within a legal manner and can be used in court towards a prosecution. This allows for a
fair trial to take place meaning that both Article 6 of the ECHR and Code G of the PACE act has been
obeyed. sometimes those who are prosecuted will be released even if they are found guilty if a
lawful procedure has not been followed e.g. in 2001 Edward Grant was arrested and later sentenced
to 18 years for murder. However, police officers had planted listening devices when Mr Grant was
talking to his solicitor. Due to this breach of his confidence and his human rights, and as this is not
lawful Mr Grant was able to appeal his conviction as police officers had abused their powers. This
shows that if lawful arrest procedures are not followed, criminals may be given more lenience in the
legal process., which is a waste of taxpayers' money, and means that criminals will not be
incarcerated risking further crime to the public.
A detainee should be informed of their legal rights. The three main areas of this are that they have
the right to speak to their solicitor for legal advice and that this can be provided without charge if
necessary. They should also be given information about the codes of practice on how they should be
detained so that they can ensure that they are treated in the correct manner. The detainee also has
the right to inform someone that they have been arrested. This is part of the PACE act 1984. It is not
a right of the detained person to make a phone call, but this is something that could be offered by
the police to the detained person. The detainee has the right to remain silent when in police custody
however if they choose to do so, this can provide problems for them in court as they will not have
raised information that they knew about the situation at the earliest point. When in custody you
need to mention anything that you will use in your defence in court. Therefore, if a detainee has
remained silent, they may find themselves unable to share defence information. The court may also
take issue with the fact that it would be deemed reasonable to mention information when initially
interviewed I.e. if a person does not mention an important fact while being interviewed the court
will take a negative view of this when the person is being trialled.
A person who is arrested for an offence may routinely have their DNA, fingerprint samples and
photographs taken. Before 2001 DNA samples were not allowed to be kept from individuals who had
been found not guilty. However, since this time it had become legal to keep all DNA samples and by
the end of 2005, there were over 3.4 million people’s DNA profiles within the police force database.
If DNA and Fingerprint samples are not kept in a lawful manner, then this could affect the suspects
human rights. People who are arrested and not charged and are possibly innocent and have had
their DNA taken have had their right to privacy breached under article 8 of the European Convention
