3. AT THE POLICE STATION
Your Rights
If you are arrested you should be told by the arresting officer that you are
under arrest and the reason why. You should then be taken to the nearest police
station. You have the right to remain silent, and you should exercise this at
all times, other than to give your name and address. You don’t have to
say anything, but if the police cannot establish your name and address you won’t
get bail if you are charged with an offence. When you arrive you will be booked
in by the custody sergeant, who then becomes responsible for your detention
at the police station. His job is to ensure that your rights are complied with.
He should inform you of the following:
•You are entitled to speak to a solicitor free of charge. If you know the
name of your chosen firm of solicitors, the police will be able to find the
phone number and contact them. If you do not have a solicitor, you can use the
duty solicitor – but see below.
•You are entitled to have someone informed of your arrest. At the custody
officer’s discretion you can usually speak to that person on the phone.
•You are entitled to have a pencil and paper.
You are entitled to consult the PACE codes of practice. This manual details
the manner in which the police are bound by law to treat detained persons.The
custody sergeant will fill out a standard type form, on which there will be
sections for your date of birth, occupation, height etc. You are under no obligation
to answer any of these questions and do not fell pressurized in to doing so.
You will also be asked to sign the form – again there is no legal obligation
to do this, but most people do. You will have your property taken from you,
including any watch or belt, and placed in a bag. Under recent legislation,
the custody sergeant is no longer obliged to log all your personal property
and may do so at his discretion.
If your property is logged, you will be asked to sign a form to confirm that
this is your property, so – if you choose to sign - make sure the inventory
is correct, and sign directly underneath the last item, so the police can’t
add anything afterwards. You will then be taken to a cell, where you will usually
have to wait a few hours before being interviewed or released.
Points to Note
•The most important point to remember during your time in police custody
is to stay calm and relaxed. The experience of being arrested for the first
time can be quite unnerving. The whole process is designed to scare and intimidate
you. Many people find the hardest part is being alone and powerless in a cell,
with the added disorientation that you do not know the time, as your watch will
have been taken from you. You may feel that you should just tell them anything
in order for them to let you go. If the police sense that you are unfamiliar
with the process, they will use all manner of tricks to make you think that
it is in your best interests to give an interview, so don’t fall in to
this trap. Stay calm, stay quiet and you will usually be out within a few hours.
•If you choose not to exercise any of your rights when you are booked in,
you may still exercise them at any point in the future. You should work on the
assumption that any phone conversation you have will be listened in to by the
police. Despite what the police may say, do NOT sign to say that you do not
wish to speak to a solicitor or have someone informed of your arrest.
•Make sure the custody sergeant has noted on your custody record the correct
time when you arrived at the police station.
•The custody sergeant is responsible for your detention from your arrival
at the police station. If you are under any doubt as to the reason why you are
being detained then ask the custody sergeant, who is under a duty to tell you.
•If you have any injuries – eg bruising from handcuffs - make sure
these are logged by the custody sergeant, and insist on seeing the police doctor.
This may not only help you with any criminal charges brought against you, but
may also get you more money if you sue the police afterwards.
•A free duty solicitor is available at the police station. Sometimes the
duty solicitor can be very good, but it’s usually better to speak to your
own one as many duty solicitors are ex-police officers and often will have more
in common with the police than they do with you. In any case, you’re better
off speaking to a solicitor experienced in dealing with protest cases –
see the list at the end of this booklet. If you know the name or firm of your
solicitor, the police should be able to locate them, but it’s better if
you already have their phone number on you.
Interviews
Do NOT agree to be interviewed without a solicitor present. Any interview will
be tape-recorded and you are entitled to have a solicitor present free of charge,
regardless of your income. These safeguards exist to prevent the police from
fabricating evidence.
You should REMAIN SILENT during interview and at all other times. If the police
sense that you are scared or in any way unsure, they may use any number of tricks
to try to get you talking. Eg:
•The sooner you make a statement the sooner you can go home.
•If you don’t make a statement then you won’t get bail.
•If you’re innocent then you have nothing to hide.
•We just want to hear your side of the story.
One trick they sometimes use is to say that the main activists – “the
ringleaders” – won’t risk getting arrested themselves and are
using you and letting you take the rap. Don’t be taken in by it. This is
a classic ploy adopted by the police to turn people against each other in order
to gain evidence. They have arrested you, because the arresting officer thinks
you are guilty of an offence. The custody sergeant has authorized your further
detention in order to gain more evidence by questioning to secure a conviction.
Although the courts may draw an “adverse inference” from your silence,
the case will only get to court if the police can put together enough evidence,
and they regard the interviewing of suspects as one of the main tools in obtaining
this.
Points to Note
•Anything you say outside the taped interview may also be used in evidence
against you – eg an informal chat in the police car after you have been
arrested. The police often try to engage you in friendly chit-chat as they are
taking your fingerprints or DNA – make no mistake, this is an attempt to
gather evidence and you should not be taken in by it. If you are in any doubt
about this, have a look at news archives on the internet and you will find any
number of cases in which evidence was produced of what a suspect said outside
the interview room.
•Solicitors often advise suspects to make a short statement to the police
nowadays, because the courts may draw an “adverse inference” from
their remaining silent. Our advice however is to remain silent for the following
reasons.
Firstly, by talking to the police, you may not only implicate yourself in crime,
but also others as well. Your interview could lead to other people being arrested
and charged. They may then in turn make statements implicating you. Your solicitor
may not care what happens to other activists, but you should.
Secondly, most people find – even experienced activists – that once
they have started talking it is very difficult to stop. If you try to lie you
will soon end up tying yourself in knots and making matters worse.
•REMEMBER – The police are only interviewing you in order to gain
evidence against you and / or other activists, in order to obtain a conviction.
Photographs, Fingerprints and DNA
Photographs
Prior to charge the police can now take your photo, using force if necessary.
This power was introduced in the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001
in the wake of the September 11th attacks on America.
Fingerprints / DNA
New legislation in the form of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 now means that
the police can take the fingerprints and DNA of anyone who has been arrested
for a “recordable offence”. This covers any situation where you have
been arrested except where the arrest was for breach of the peace. The police
may keep your fingerprints and DNA on file indefinitely regardless of whether
or not you are subsequently charged with or convicted of an offence.
How long will you be held?
Under the recently passed Criminal Justice Act 2003 the police can now hold
you for up to 36 hours, if you have been arrested for an “arrestable offence”.
However if you have been arrested for an offence which is not strictly speaking
“arrestable”, then the maximum time they can hold you is still 24
hours as before.
Points to Note
•The period of detention begins from when you arrive at the police station,
and not from the time of your arrest. For most minor public order offences,
you are unlikely to be detained for longer than 6 hours.
•If you are not charged the police have to let you go after a maximum of
24 hours ( or 36 hours in the case of an “arrestable offence”) from
your arrival at the police station . You may be given “police bail”
whereby you are released with a duty to return to a police station on a specified
date while the police continue to make further enquiries.
•If you are charged then you will usually be bailed to appear in court.
You may be held overnight to appear in court the next day if it’s a serious
charge, or if they cannot establish your name and address, or if you’re
already on bail for other offences.
•If you have been charged with common law breach of the peace, then normal
police practice in the past has been to hold you overnight to appear in court
the next day. However recent cases have ruled that overnight detention in such
cases is unlawful unless the police have reasonable grounds to suppose that
you will commit a further breach of the peace soon after release.
Release After Charge on Police Bail
With the passing of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, you are unlikely to be charged
with an offence initially, but will instead be bailed without charge to appear
at a police station at a later date (see notes on ‘Bail’ below). If
you are subsequently rearrested and charged with an offence when you return
to answer bail at the police station, the police will usually attach conditions
to bail granted after charge and prior to your first appearance in court. These
typically include conditions not to enter a certain area, not to approach certain
people and to reside at a certain address.
Points to Note
•If you feel that the bail conditions are too harsh – eg the condition
states that you cannot enter the whole of Cambridgeshire - you can ask the custody
sergeant to review them. If he insists on imposing the conditions, then you
can either accept them or stay overnight until court the next day and challenge
them there. If you do accept the conditions, you can still challenge them at
your next court appearance. The prosecution may also apply in court for extra
conditions which were not originally imposed by the police.
•If you are not charged and bailed to re-appear at a police station at
a later date, then no conditions may be imposed.
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