News Shorts & Other Busyness

Police Tied Up

Squall 7, Summer 1994, pg. 9.

“(The Criminal Justice Bill) contains a very considerable extension of police powers which can be used to make criminals out of demonstrators, squatters, travellers and protesters of all kinds,” warned David Faulkner, until recently the Head of Home Office criminal justice policy, in a lecture to the Goethe Institute in early June.

In the lecture, Faulkner spoke of the obvious concern that the police would be politically pressured to use the Bill, tying up staff and involving them in work that would bring them into disrepute with the general public.

Professionals and academics who have criticised the Government’s political outlook have been intimidated he said, warning, as others have done, that the Bill would be difficult to use consistently, because it demanded so much of Police time.