This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) (1984 c. 60) is an Act of Parliament which instituted a legislative framework for the powers of police officers in England and Wales to combat crime, as well as providing codes of practice for the exercise of those powers.1 Part V1 2 of PACE required the Home Secretary to issue Codes of Practice governing police powers. The aim of PACE has always been to establish a balance between the powers of the British Police and the rights of members of the public. Equivalent provision is made for Northern Ireland by the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 (SI 1989/1341).
Criminal liability may arise if the specific terms of the Act itself are not conformed to, whereas failure to conform to the codes of practice while searching, arresting, detaining or interviewing a suspect may lead to evidence obtained during the process becoming inadmissible in court.
PACE was significantly modified by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. This replaced nearly all existing powers of arrest, including the category of arrestable offences, with a new general power of arrest for all offences.
PACE is applied not only to police officers but also (to a certain extent) to Customs and Excise officers3 and to military investigations4. Further, any person with a duty of investigating offences or charging offenders is also required to follow the provisions of the PACE codes as far as practical and relevant.5
Despite its safeguards, PACE was extremely controversial on its introduction, as it was thought to give considerable extra powers to the police.
Contents |
PACE Codes of Practice
The Home Office and the Cabinet Office announced a joint review of PACE and its codes of practice in May 2002, and on 31 July 2004, new PACE Codes of Practice came into effect.
- PACE Code A: deals with the exercise by police officers of statutory powers to search a person or a vehicle without first making an arrest. It also deals with the need for a police officer to make a record of such a stop or encounter. 6
- PACE Code B: deals with police powers to search premises and to seize and retain property found on premises and persons.
- PACE Code C: sets out the requirements for the detention, treatment and questioning of people in police custody by police officers.
- PACE Code D: concerns the main methods used by the police to identify people in connection with the investigation of offences and the keeping of accurate and reliable criminal records.
- PACE Code E: deals with the tape recording of interviews with suspects in the police station.
- PACE Code F: deals with the visual recording with sound of interviews with suspects.
On 1 January 2006 an additional code came into force.
- PACE Code G: deals with statutory powers of arrest.
On 24 July 2006 a further code came into force.
- PACE Code H: deals with the detention of terrorism suspects.
Case law
Since the passage of PACE, the courts have recognised the greater safeguards of civil liberties granted by the act.
In Osman v Southwark Crown Court (1999) 7, the search of Osman was held to be unlawful because the officers searching him did not give their names and station, contrary to PACE's requirements.8
In O'Loughlin v Chief Constable of Essex (1998), the courts held that the entry of a premises under section 17 PACE to arrest O'Loughlin's wife for criminal damage was unlawful because under PACE, anyone present on the premises must be given the reason for entry.9
However, not all cases have gone against the police; in R v Longman (1988), it was held that the police entry of a premises to execute a search warrant for drugs was lawful, although deception had been utilised to gain entry, and upon entering, the police had not identified themselves or showed the warrant.10
See also
References
- ^ Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) Codes of Practice
- ^ Part VI of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
- ^ Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, section 114
- ^ Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, section 113
- ^ Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, section 69(9). These include officers of the Serious Fraud Office (R v Director of the Serious Fraud Office, ex p. Saunders [1988] Crim LR 837), trading standards officers (Dudley MBC v Debenhams (1994) 159 JP 18), commercial investigators when interviewing an employee (Twaites and Brown (1990) 92 Cr App R 106), store detectives (Bayliss (1993) 98 Cr App R 235), Federation Against Copyright Theft investigators (Joy v Federation Against Copyright Theft [1993] Crim LR 588) and council officerscitation needed. However such a duty is not owed by DTI inspectors appointed under sections 432 and 442 of the Companies Act 1985 (Seelig and Spens [1992] 1 WLR 148), nor by prison officers (Martin Taylor [2000] EWCA Crim 2922).
- ^ Stop and Search under Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
- ^ Osman v Southwark Crown Court
- ^ Martin, Jacqueline (2005). The English Legal System (4th ed.), p. 129. London: Hodder Arnold. ISBN 0-340-89991-3.
- ^ Martin, p. 133.
- ^ Martin, p. 132.
External links
- Official text of the statute as amended and in force today within the United Kingdom, from the UK Statute Law Database
- Home Office PACE Codes
- O'Loughlin v Chief Constable Of Essex [1997] EWCA Civ 2891 (3 December 1997)
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 19 November 2008, at 21:49.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.