Complaint : I'm a Photographer, not a Terrorist!
Text Of Letter sent to Police :


The offending photograph


I write in reference to a Stop And Search conducted upon myself on (REDACTED), after taking a photograph of the International Station in foggy conditions in the presence of my family. Form 1800b (Combined) Rev. 08/08 number 66821 was issued as a result of this search.

This Stop and Search was conducted on invalid grounds, and I therefore write to you to formally complain over an illegal Stop and Search conducted with no legal justification. In addition, the relevant Officer also incurred multiple major procedural breaches which additionally invalidate the search.

I therefore complain formally on the following grounds :

- Ignorance of valid legislation by the Officer. The reasons provided on the Form 1800b applied to Section 44 which has been withdrawn. (This Section was ruled in Gillian and Quinton vs United Kingdom, January 12th 2010 as breaching sections 5,8, 10 and 11 of the Convention For The Protection Of Human Rights And Fundamental Freedoms, and was no longer legally valid at the time and date of the Stop and Seach). Section 44 expired at 23:59 on July 8th 2010. Section 44 can now only be used for searches of vehicles and not pedestrians. It is inconceivable that the officer was not aware of this. Therefore the officer was acting, and knowingly, outside the law or ignorant of the law.

- Misfeasant and inappropriate use of legislation. The grounds for the search were a gross distortion of the justifications required to authorise a search under Section 43, had the search been conducted under these grounds.

- Failure to observe procedure. The officer failed to provide information required under PACE 1984 prior to the search. The officer failed to provide details of the Police Station he was from, and legally valid authorisation for the search.

- Failure to use correct and valid documentation. The form used – Form 1800b (Combined) Rev. 08/08 was withdrawn in Summer 2010 and the search was therefore conducted illegally and without authorisation under obsolete documentation.

During the Stop And Search, I repeatedly asked the Officer that my understanding was that Stop and Search was being phased out - as per the ruling from the European Court and the subsequent amendments to Section 44 - to which I was told that the Stop and Search was not being phased out, but in fact, “strengthened”.

The Officer does not appear to understand the act he was conducting the Search under and either not aware, or aware and wilfully in breach of, the fact that Section 44 had been withdrawn and could no longer be used. In either case, this demonstrates incompetency - and ignorance of the law he is sworn to upheld.


(an example of terrorist photography)

During the Stop and Search event I also asked under what grounds the Search was being conducted, to which the response was that there was a period of “Heightened security” without justifying this statement despite additional questioning – and also I asked what specific potential offence, to which I was informed the Railway Station and Retail Outlet were the potential locations. Since I have made approximately 1,000 journeys from this station over the past five years, and also taken hundreds of photographs in and out the station over the same time, it came as some considerable surprise that I was been subject to a Stop and Search event under such non specific circumstances.

The Stop and Search conducted was allegedly on the grounds of the object of “Terrorism”. Section 44 was ticked on the applicable Yellow Form. The qualifying statement that was applicable to now-withdrawn Section 44 - “The officer does not have to have reasonable grounds to suspect” - cannot be used as justification. The officer must be able to justify his decision upon reasonable grounds within the boundaries of valid legislation.

In addition, if this search had been legal, and performed under Section 43, The Officer must have been able to justify “reasonable suspiscion”. Were I seeking terrorist information regarding The International Station, the Network Rail website, who governs the Station, have a list of permitted photography at the station at their website : LINK as well as full and detailed plans of the station at LINK

In addition, the most basic of searches of GoogleStreetView, and Flickr, will provide full station views from all angles and (as of 31st December 2010) over 680 photographs of the station. There is no reasonable way in which a photograph of a foggy station would have been useful in the event of any terrorist activity. The Officer conducted the Stop and Search without any legal authority, invoking non-existent legislative clauses, and with no plausible justification given the above surfeit of available information.

Additionally, under PACE (Police And Criminal Evidence) Act1984, before searching any individual, the Officer must provide the following :

• the constable’s name and the name of the police station to which he is attached,
• the reason for the search,
• the grounds (in law) for the search, and
• that a copy of the search form will be available on demand for twelve months.

Of the above, the officer only provided one of the four before conducting the search, being the reason for the search of “Terrorism”. The following breaches occurred :

- He did not quote the relevant grounds in Law prior to the search or legally valid grounds after the search, quoting withdrawn legislation.

- He did not provide his name or the name of the police station to which he was attached prior to the search.

- He did not at any point state that a copy of the search form will be available on demand for twelve months prior to the search

I remind you of the statement by Theresa May of July 2010 following the EU ruling, that “The first duty of government is to protect the public but that duty must never be used as a reason to ride roughshod over our civil liberties.”

I therefore complain in the strongest possible terms that on I was subject to an intrusive Stop and Search which was illegal, being conducted in enforcement of Section 44 that was withdrawn on 08th July 2010, and that there were several, major, procedural breaches that also rendered the search illegal. I am disappointed that the law enforcement officers of this country are not aware of the laws they are required to enforce, and that they intimidating citizens to comply to non-existent laws without any legal authority.

I regret the necessity of having to write to you on this matter, however it is not possible to tolerate such dereliction of duties, and such ignorance of the law, by a Police Officer. If there is not an acknowledgement of this complaint received within 10 working days (from date of letter), and if the complaint is not resolved satisfactorily within a reasonable timescale, I will escalate this complaint in furtherance of this issue, and will consider all other available actions as I deem reasonable including a full investigation by the IPCC.


(an example of more terrorist activity ?)
- posted by Mark @ 8:53 am