Policing terrorist risk: stop and search under the Terrorism Act 2000, section 44

This thesis examines the role, use and impact of stop and search under the Terrorism Act 2000, section 44 by combining doctrinal and empirical methods, drawing upon close legal analysis of the relevant legislation, jurisprudence and secondary sources intertwined with data from forty-two semi-structured interviews, carried out with police officers, community representatives and stakeholders. Section 44 is judged against the framework principles of accountability, adherence to human rights and to the Government's self-set goals as set in CONTEST. I Section 44 is depicted as a vital tool to disrupt and prevent acts of terrorism, as evidenced by its widespread use - there were 197,008 section 44 stops carried out in 2008/09. Concerns have, however, been voiced since its inception that section 44 is being over-used and that it is being used inconsistently. Alongside issues raised around its deployment, the legality of the power, in terms of adherence to the ECHR, has been questioned. In January 2010 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the routine use of section 44 violates the right to privacy under Article 8.3 This thesis first sets out the theoretical framework, research questions and methodology. It then considers the historical development of the power to stop and search, in terms of 'normal' and 'counter-terrorist' policing, identifying trends that highlight areas of perennial concern in relation to stop and search. The focus then turns to section 44 itself. The two stage authorisation process is examined by reference to the primary legislative sources and data from the fieldwork and critiqued against the framework principles before recommendations are proposed for ways in which the power could be modified so that it adheres to the principles. The deployment of the power is then detailed and critiqued before recommendations for improving its adherence to the framework principles are suggested. The final substantive chapter looks at the impact of section 44 upon communities and groups. This draws upon secondary literature and statistics as well as the fieldwork data. The chapter concludes by highlighting the weaknesses in the current system and recommending changes. The final chapter concludes by summarising the findings in relation to each research question and assessing whether the new power under TACT section 47 A, implemented recently by the Government as an alternative to section 44, addresses the various concerns that section 44 raised.