Police Powers Under PACE

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Police Powers Under PACE

Certain police powers under the police and criminal evidence Act 1984

(PACE) were implemented on 1 January 1986. For provisions set out in

section 5, 50 and 55 of the act, there is statutory requirement for

chief officers of police to collect and publish statistics monitoring

their use. These provisions cover stop ad searches of persons or

vehicles, road checks and intimate searches of persons.

Information giving the ethnic appearance of persons stopped and

searched was published in January 2001 a publication under section 95

of the criminal justice act 1991.

A search for one type of article may result in a different category of

article being found. From April 1991 only one record need to be

completed if a person is in a vehicle and both searched and the object

and grounds for the search are the same.

The powers to stop and search contained in section 1 of the act added

to some existing powers of this kind. Searches for drugs are still

permitted by the Misuse Of Drugs Act 1971 and those for firearms under

the Firearms Act 1968, but these laws do vary such as under the

Prevention Of Terrorism Act 1989, Section 15; various poaching and

wildlife conversation legislation.

The criminal justice and public order act 1994 introduced new powers

to stop and search vehicles and person. Section 81 enables stops and

searches of vehicles and occupants to be made to prevent acts of

terrorism. Section 60 enables stop and searches to be made in

anticipation of violence. The new powers to stop and search in

anticipation of violence on 10 April 1995. In addition, the prevention

of terrorism act was further amended by the Prevention of terrorism

act 1996 on 3rd April 1996. This added a new section 13B, which

introduced stops and searches of pedestrians in order to prevent acts

of terrorism.

The detention in police custody under PACE implies police custody

before charge on the authority of a police officer is limited to 24

hours except where the alleged offence is a serious arrestable one,

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