Police to be sued over stop and search gaffe

SOME of the 115 people stopped and searched by PSNI officers acting without correct authorisation have instructed solicitors to begin legal action for compensation.

The news came after the PSNI issued an apology yesterday for unauthorised stop and search instances.

Under the Justice and Security Act, they can only be authorised by a chief officer or someone temporarily promoted to the role.

In the 115 actions in the summer, the authorisation was considered and signed by an individual who was an acting Assistant Chief Constable, rather than having been temporarily promoted to the role.

Darragh Mackin, who is a partner at Phoenix Law in Belfast, said his firm had already been instructed by several people affected, one of whom had been stopped and searched five times.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph last night, Mr Mackin said: “This issue has arisen before, whereby stops and searches were being conducted without the correct authorisation under a specific provision of the Terrorism Act.

“In that instance we did issue proceedings and we did obtain damages.

“So we are instructed to take that course of action in the exact same way.”

It’s understood that three of the searches, which took place between July 30 and August 11 this year, were of people aged under 18.

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray said in a statement: “As soon as we became aware of the problem, we began a process to understand how the error had come about and what learning there is for the future.”

She said the PSNI had written to people affected to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“We will continue to work with the Policing Board and the Independent Reviewer of Justice and Security around our use of our stop and search powers and will take forward any lessons learned from this technical error.”

Po l i c i n g Board member Mervyn Storey MLA said that while the PSNI had made a mistake, the existence of the stop and search powers themselves were an important deterrent against terrorism in Northern Ireland.

“In recent years the deployment of these powers have been adjudged to have been lawful and appropriate by numerous independent reviews,” he said.

“Although unacceptable, this isolated incident should not deflect attention from the core aim of tackling serious criminality and preventing harm within our communities.”