Criticisms of Police Powers

There are many ways that Police Powers that come from PACE can be criticised.

Under rights of arrest, we know that there are reasonable grounds of arrest to consider when a constable arrests a suspect. However, these grounds can be criticised for being too broad. They cover a wide range of different reasons for arrest but are not specific and this means that there is far too much for these grounds to cover. For example, loss of or damage to property can cover possessions, land, and many other things and there is many ways that property can be lost or damaged. Another problem that arises under rights of arrest is that the constable is able to arrest anyone he thinks has or will commit a crime, 'thinks', this is based off a subjective judgement and this judgement may be wrong and so this can be criticised in that the wrong people may be suspects of a crime they did not or would not have even done. The constable me also use this as a discriminatory excuse and say he thinks a certain person has committed a crime just because of their race, religion etc. Basically, its all based on the possibility of someone committing a crime rather than evidence that they did or would.

When it comes to the police interviews, there is a problem with the questions being too ambiguous. This issue has been solved by Code C of PACE which allows the suspect to give an innocent explanation for a more accurate and reliable interview and response. Along side this, although oppression isn't allowed, a person may still feel forced into confession through the way of questioning done by the police, even if they didn't commit the crime.

The suspect has the right to remain silent. However this can lead to the jury thinking that the suspect is guilty. There may be many reasons that the suspect doesn't want to talk i.e. they may feel too scared to talk before the jury, but does this automatically make them guilty of a crime? the fact of the matter is that it shouldn't.

One major criticism that comes from police powers is their power to 'stop and search' any person at any time. A public opinion survey for the HMIC suggested 37% of suspects were not told the reason they had been stopped, 42% did not understand the reason given and 47% felt they had not been treated with respect. This shows that the police can use their powers of suspecting a person for any given reason known to them and not have to provide a reason to the suspect. This goes against the suspects rights and again provides many opportunities for the police to abuse their powers for a possible discriminatory use. 

In the case of Stephen Mitchell, he used his powers to suspect, stop and arrest numerous women while on duty but this eventually led to him sexually abusing these women. This is a prime example of the police abusing their powers for their own personal desires.