Police Powers

[beerdrinker]

On another forum is a discussion about flying into RNAS Culdrose. Apart from contacting Culdrose Ops (quite normal), Cornwall Police demand that a Gen Dec is sent to them. What right do they have to demand a Gen Dec (GAR) for an internal UK flight?

[SteveC]

None. I suspect there is a bit of miscommunication here. I have never been asked to submit a GAR from an internal flight and have been to Culdrose a few times as I have cointacts in Helston.

[Paul_Sengupta]

I was once asked to call Special Branch to request after hours flying back into Pembey on a weekend. I called them and they seemed to wonder why I was calling them. I wasn't entirely sure myself.

[Timothy]

I am no lawyer, but I suspect that the Police have very wide powers under the various anti-terrorism acts. I would imagine that they could also investigate car journeys, and indeed why people are simply hanging around on street corners or pretty much anything else.

The balance between way of life, civil liberty and protection from terrorism is a huge debate that various governments have not properly engaged in.

Are we prepared to accept a moderate risk of death on public transport in exchange for no airport security or having litter bins at railway stations?

I have no answer to that. But nor does anyone else, as far as I can tell.

Like social workers, the Police are damned if they do and damned if they don't. For every "effective" 7/7 I imagine there are tens or hundreds of plots foiled at different stages of planning, whether they are foiled by a drone in Afghanistan or a dawn raid in Bradford or the closing of a Mosque in London. They foil the plots because they have information. Are we willing to die to keep them from taking that information?

Maybe the answer is yes, but we need to be clear about it.