Stretching the long arm of the law

AT first they were the eyes and ears of the police. Looking for anything suspicious, straining to hear of anything untoward, and generally making us all feel a little safer. Now it looks as if community wardens are to be the long arm of the law as well.

As part of a radical shake-up of the police, Home Secretary David Blunkett yesterday announced that civilians would be given the same power of arrest as police officers, the idea being to supplement the work of the police force with an additional group of people who are able to take direct action against criminals, and potential criminals.

But it is not a proposal which has found favour with rank-and-file officers, prompting fears that it will create a two-tier force and undermine the role of the traditional bobby. And it also poses a potential threat to civil liberties, according to Alisdair Gillespie, senior lecturer in criminal justice at Teesside University.

"It is a major step: no private citizen has ever been given the power of arrest in this country. Normally, we would only entrust that to people who hold the office of constable," he says. "Every member of the public has the right to make a citizen's arrest, and it is on that basis that traffic wardens can arrest people, in the same way as you and I can, but what is being proposed is that they get an official power of arrest on suspicion, and that is quite a significant step forward.

"If a citizen sees a crime in progress, then, theoretically, anyone is entitled to arrest that person and bring them to the nearest police station. And if it was a lawful arrest, then the person being arrested couldn't claim on grounds such as assault or false imprisonment.

"What the police have, and presumably what these community wardens will have, is the right to take anticipatory action. We have to wait until a crime has taken place; a police officer can arrest on suspicion that you are going to commit a crime, so they have got an extra power. They can arrest you before you have actually done anything."

Extending this power to community wardens opens up a whole can of worms, with the possibility of legal action by people who have been arrested and subsequently found to be innocent. "It has implications for damages for false imprisonment and assault," says Mr Gillespie. "The courts tend to look favourably on an arrest by the police, whether they will do the same for these new people is another matter.

"If a police officer acted with malice or was grossly wrong, there could still be a case for false imprisonment, but if they have reasonable suspicion that you are going to commit an offence, they have the right to use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances to arrest or detain you. That gives them quite a lot of leeway and a lot of people will think that is something ordinary citizens shouldn't have.

"We don't particularly want to be victims of crime, and we would rather the police did try and detect crime, but I'm not sure we would want to give everybody that power to arrest because it can get abused. We have had problems with minority groups allegedly being targeted by the police before, and we could have a whole lot of new people doing that, people who haven't been given adequate training and don't know the powers they have, because there are circumstances where you shouldn't arrest people. Is there a risk there is going to be overkill?"

The sanctions against community wardens who do step out of line could well be a potential obstacle to them becoming a smoothly-functioning adjunct to the police force. Whereas police officers could face a range of punishments, including fines, chances are the only disciplinary measures which can be taken against civilians is a written warning or dismissal. While one may be too lenient, the second could be too severe, meaning managers would be reluctant to use it in all but the most extreme cases.

Giving community wardens the power to arrest also puts them in a different category to special constables, as an additional, lower tier. While special constables have all the powers of a regular police constable, this only applies when they are on duty. So, while regular officers can arrest people while they are off duty, specials cannot. Specials are also given extensive training, regular refresher courses and are generally partnered by a regular officer. Community wardens are unlikely to be given the same amount of training, on the grounds of cost, Mr Gillespie believes.

"I would not be very happy about the state trying to do this on the cheap, without giving us some protection," he says. "If an officer steps out of line, there are protocols that can deal with that, but we don't know that the same thing will happen with civilians.

"Most people are happy to give police constables extra powers, because they are the police, but I'm not sure people would be quite happy to give security guards all these powers. There is a role for civilians within the police, but giving them the power to arrest is maybe a step too far."

And this could be seen as part of a wider move towards a more authoritarian society, according to Mr Gillespie. Another of the measures announced by Mr Blunkett yesterday was to give the Government the power to intervene in a police force which is seen as failing.

"I think they have got to be careful taking on too many powers. David Blunkett certainly seems to be taking a more authoritarian approach to law and order, and that is something we have never had in this country. We have always been quite free. They are trying to keep lowering the threshold of criminal activity and assuming more and more powers.

"It seems as though they are saying that if they don't like the way a police force is being run, they will take it over. But the police are supposed to be independent of the government, the argument being that if ministers tried to do something for their own political reasons, we have the security of knowing that the police don't answer to ministers.

"Are we going to see the Government ordering a force to change its policy? That is what we have local police authorities for. We have a democratic input into policing through local authorities, so why should central government interfere?"

He says the idea of a national police force has always been resisted in this country, partly on the grounds that it is one way that dictators exercise a lot of their authority. While no one is suggesting we are heading towards a dictatorship, Mr Gillespie believes it is as well to be sceptical of moves to increase government power. "It is a step towards having the police run by the state, and effectively they would be responsible to the government, which they are not at the moment. I'm not sure that is something we would want to see."