Driver who snapped police parked at bus stop is quizzed under terror laws
A DELIVERY driver was questioned under anti-terror laws after taking pictures of police vehicles parked at a bus stop.
Kieron Power’s wife had previously been given a £110 ticket for stopping in the same place for 45 seconds behind a police car and van.
A week after she received the ticket given out by a council CCTV ‘spy car’, he went back to gather evidence of police cars parked at the stop in Kingston upon Thames, South-West London. Mr Power, 54, from Esher, Surrey, was on his way home after taking the photographs when a police car came up behind him with its blue lights flashing.
He said: ‘I didn’t think much, because I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but then all of a sudden another police car appeared in front of me in a pincer movement and I was forced to stop.
‘They told me they were stopping me under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. They said I’d been seen taking pictures of police cars, which I admitted. I told them why, but they still demanded my pictures be deleted. I refused, because I had done nothing wrong, and the officer spoke to his commander. Eventually I was allowed on my way – it seemed so heavy-handed.
‘I was annoyed that my wife had been given a ticket for briefly stopping somewhere the police always park, but I never dreamed I would be accused of being a terrorist.’
Mr Power’s wife has paid the ticket for parking behind the Bittoms centre in Kingston after an appeal on the grounds that police were blocking the ‘bus stand’ markings failed.
A Kingston police spokesman said: ‘ The man was initially requested to delete the photos, however after the officer clarified the Metropolitan Police Service’s approach towards photography of police officers and vehicles with his supervisors, he realised the man was allowed to keep them.
‘The police vehicles parked on the bus stand are part of the Met’s Safer Transport Command and have been given permission by the local authority to park there.’
Mr Power said: ‘I appreciate that police cars need to stop wherever they can for operational matters, but these vehicles are always there. It’s one rule for them and one rule for us, I suppose.’