The police placed a metal detection arch at Turnpike Lane a few days ago – and a colleague phoned me to tell me about it. He (being a lawyer) walked around it and challenged the police as to whether they thought they had the powers to make him walk through. In the end, when he walked around the arch, not through it, no one stopped him or followed him.
Rather a mess of a situation if you ask me! His legal view (and that of others I’ve spoken to also) is that the police have no powers to make people walk through the arches – but then I’ve also heard accounts of the police behaving as if they had. So – better information for the public and better training for the police needed by the sounds of it.
Also – from the accounts I’ve heard it also looks as if almost anything metal sets off the arches – and of course we all carry many metal things other than knifes. So there are two steps of police decision – who do they ask to go through the arches and then, if the alarm goes off, do they closely search the person? And again – the accounts I’ve heard are worrying, in that the police, or rather some police officers, seem to be slipping in to bad old habit of deciding whether or not to take these steps based on inaccurate cliches such as whether or not someone looks Muslim. White boys carry knives too!
Even if all these issues are got right, this isn’t the long term solution, much as it may bring very welcome short term benefits. Long term – we have to invest the resources to support young people so that there are other ways in life. Changing behaviour and culture is the issue.
Lynne Featherstone 
Lynne, I similarly strolled through the detectors at Turnpike Lane Tube station. I had nothing to hide, so why not walk through it. Of course, I understand fully where your lawyer colleague is coming from, and respect him for standing up to these officers. Furthermore, I was recently stopped on the outskirts of my local park, simply for walking on my own. It seems it is illegal now to walk alone in the park. They were very straightforward and asked me what I was doing in the park, without respecting my privacy. I was sitting down and reading my book, and suddenly these PCSOs approach me and ask me what my name is? (in a friendly way). So I said I do not wish to disclose my name to you, until I have consulted my family solicitor and unless you give me firm grounds explaining why you need to know my name. I suggest you leave me alone before I lodge an official complaint. They walked away immediately lol 🙂 it worked! say solicitor and they usually run for the hills lol.
Lynne, see Liberal Conspiracy’s Friday story about that Haringey deployment:http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/2008/06/13/not-the-right-sort-of-person/Very revealing.Bruce Schneier, an American very active in this area of security would call this type of activity ‘Security Theater’. See http://www.schneier.com
I have just been stopped and searched at Turnpike Lane tube for declining to walk through a metal detector. I declined to walk through a similar metal detector at the same place last week, but was not stop and searched. The difference between the two incidents – I was wearing a suit on the first occasion, and jeans/Tshirt on the second