Why a no-deal Brexit could be good for foreign crooks
COPS ‘MAY BE POWERLESS TO HOLD SUSPECTS’
APOLICE boss fears officers will be powerless to arrest foreign crime suspects on the spot in Britain if there’s a No Deal Brexit.
With the clock ticking down, North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones has warned again of the dangers if the UK crashes out of the European Union on March 29.
It won’t be possible for North Wales Police to detain suspects until a warrant was obtained from the courts even when checks showed an individual was wanted overseas, he said.
Mr Jones fears suspected offenders could abscond, if police have to rely on slower and more bureaucratic measures than existing arrange- ments. It could also impact North Wales Police’s ability to battle terrorism and serious organised crime including modern slavery and human and drugs trafficking.
The commissioner said: “This is exactly the situation I warned about two years ago and I am worried as we edge nearer the Brexit precipice that the people of North Wales will be put at risk if the folly of a No Deal departure comes to pass.”
The commissioner spoke out after the issue was raised by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Richard Martin, the national policing lead for Brexit.
According to Deputy Commissioner Martin, currently if an officer carries out a “name check” on someone they encounter, it is automatically run through both UK and European databases.
Without access to the EU tools, the officer would have to check a separate Interpol system which could take up to 66 days.
He said: “We could not arrest that person in front of us, while with a European Arrest Warrant we can do it instantaneously. The officer has to go to a magistrates court to get a warrant under the 1957 convention of extradition.
“Criminals are entrepreneurs of crime, if there is a gap to exploit I’m sure some of them probably would.”
Mr Jones, a former police inspector, first raised the potential dangers of crashing out of the EU soon after referendum in June 16.
He said: “All these important tools we currently use for security and policing are now at risk and could soon be denied to our police forces.
“Brexit may risk putting the UK and North Wales in jeopardy. After all this cooperation is used to help North Wales Police guard against terrorism, serious organised crime including modern slavery and human and drugs trafficking.
“A hard Brexit will mean starting from scratch, negotiating individually with each country and using instruments that we currently use for countries outside the EU and that will mean extradition will be slower and more difficult, and criminals will evade justice and will find it easier to operate in the UK.”
Mr Jones said the Crown Prosecution are planning for worst case scenario. The Home Office has received £350m in transition funding and the Border Force will receive £60m of that.
“I challenged the Assistant Director of the UK Border Force who was unable to answer my questions around how policing and security looks like for the Common Travel Area but she did say that the CTA will remain,” said Mr Jones. “But that requires a single market and a Customs Union and Mrs May says we will be leaving both.
“Unfortunately, we don’t seem to have moved on much since the referendum following which I asked the Security Minister, Ben Wallace, about policing the Common Travel Area and his stock answer was that the Home Office were aware of the ‘vulnerabilities’ of the Common Travel Area but in the last two years they don’t seem to have done much about those vulnerabilities.”
Mr Jones said it was “increasingly clear” a hard Brexit would mean a hard border and that would not only be on the island of Ireland but also at Holyhead , disrupting the flow of goods and services.