‘Norfolk magistrates were unaware that the police had accredited bouncers in the Prince of Wales Road area of Norwich, which contains many of the city’s clubs and pubs, because the police had not consulted either JPs or local judiciary. Suddenly bouncers belonging to a firm called Eventguard were handing out fines without any kind of formal procedure or transparency. Paul Allen, chairman of the local magistrates, suggests that this bypasses the authority of magistrates courts and may result in people being fined unfairly or not receiving the proper punishment.
At Addenbrooke’s hospital there are now eight staff who have been “trained” by police and are empowered to issue on-the-spot fines to patients, an astonishing development sanctioned by the chief constable of Cambridgeshire, Julie Spence. Under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) , introduced by the Police Reform Act in 2002, they have the power to demand the name and address of a person and fine them for disorder. In Cambridgeshire, people are concerned about the spread of unaccountable policing and the creation of a “private police force”. The police committee expressed worries that “no local democratic or public debate has occurred”.
One of the significant powers given to the 1,500 accredited security guards, park wardens and bouncers is access to the Police National Computer, which must surely increase the risk of abuse of the database.’
If anyone doubted that the police now run the country, this should put them right.
